Defensive miscues end Yankees’ season after 7-6 loss to Dodgers in World Series Game 5

The Yankees blew a big early lead and a small one late in Game 5 of the World Series and fell to the Dodgers, 7-6, Wednesday night in a wild affair at Yankee Stadium.

The victory gives the Dodgers the eighth World Series title in their history. Los Angeles won the series, four games to one, and have now beaten the Yankees four times in the 12 meetings between the teams in the Fall Classic.

Gerrit Cole pitched 6.2 innings and the Yankees got homers from Aaron Judge, Jazz Chisholm and Giancarlo Stanton. But the Yanks could not hold the 5-0 lead they built by the third inning and, at least in part, they have the kind of lapses that infected them during the season to blame.

The top of the fifth might have been their worst single of the season and it undid their lead. Two errors – a dropped fly ball by Judge and a poor throw by Game 4 star Anthony Volpe – plus some confusion between Cole and Anthony Rizzo on a spinning grounder doomed them to give up five unearned runs. They missed several opportunities on offense, including leaving the bases loaded in the second and the fifth innings.

Now the Dodgers get to celebrate and the Yankees will wonder what if. Here’s a big question that will dominate their winter – will Juan Soto, a free agent, be back in pinstripes or sign elsewhere?

Here are some takeaways…

– The Yankees were 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and just 9-for-45 (.200) in those situations during the series. They left 43 runners on base in five games.

– The Dodgers overcame a 6-5 deficit in the eighth inning by scoring twice on sacrifice flies, one by Gavin Lux and the other by Mookie Betts. Both of the runs were charged to Tommy Kahnle, who had not allowed a run in the postseason in eight previous outings. In the previous three games, the Yanks’ bullpen had allowed just one run over 16 innings. The final three runs of the game actually came home on sac flies – the Yanks re-took the lead in the sixth on one by Stanton, who drove in Soto.

– Cole, who was making his 22nd career postseason start, came out of the game after walking Freeman with two out in the seventh inning. As he came off the mound, there were fans chanting Cole’s name and he acknowledged them briefly en route to the dugout. He threw a season-high 108 pitches after not throwing more than 89 in any of his previous four Postseason starts this year. Cole allowed five runs – all unearned – and four hits in 6.2 innings. He struck out six and walked four and gave the Yankees important length, though he did not help his own cause when he failed to cover first base in the fifth when the Yankee defense in general got sloppy. Cole had a 2.17 ERA this postseason.

– The Yankees got off to a fast start against Dodgers starter Jack Flaherty. Judge, who had struck out three times against Flaherty in Game 1, homered after Flaherty had issued a one-out walk to Soto, which pushed Soto’s on-base streak in the postseason to 25 games. The homer came on the first pitch and traveled 403 feet to right, leaving Judge’s bat at 108.9 miles per hour, according to MLB’s Statcast. It also made the Stadium loud. It was Judge’s first career World Series homer and his 16th overall in his career in the postseason. Judge had entered the game batting .152 in the postseason.

– Chisholm followed with his first career World Series homer, too, a 392-foot drive to right-center. It was the 14th time two Yankees hit back-to-back home runs in the postseason and the fifth time that it’s happened in the World Series. The last time the Yanks hit consecutive home runs in the Fall Classic, Thurman Munson and Reggie Jackson did it in the eighth inning of Game 5 at Dodger Stadium in 1977.

– The Yanks kept adding. In the second, Volpe led off with a double and scored one out later on a single by Alex Verdugo. They had a chance for more, loaded the bases with two two-out walks, but Chisholm grounded out. Still, the Yankees were ahead, 4-0, and they knocked out Flaherty in the second inning.

– Flaherty, who gave the Dodgers 5.1 innings of two-run ball in the opener, faced nine batters and only managed to get four outs. In 1.1 innings of work, Flaherty allowed four runs and four hits while striking out one and walking one. His postseason ERA ballooned more than a run, rising to 7.36.

– Stanton padded the lead with a leadoff homer in the third inning. It was his seventh of this postseason, which set a record for the most in a single postseason by a Yankee. It was also his 18th career postseason longball. But the Yanks failed to tack on in the fourth, when Judge and Chisholm made outs with runners on first and second. In the fifth, they left the bases loaded when Gleyber Torres flew to right for the final out.

– Then the Yankee defense fell apart in a dreadful fifth inning. After Kiké Hernández led off with the first Dodger hit off Cole, Judge dropped an easy fly ball hit by Edman for an error. Judge did not have an error in the regular season. Will Smith hit a grounder to Volpe’s right and Volpe tried to get the lead runner at third, but he made a poor throw and that error loaded the bases. Cole struck out Gavin Lux and Shohei Ohtani, Lux on 99-mph heat and Ohtani with a knuckle-curve, and was on the cusp of escape. But then he and Rizzo had some kind of blunder when Betts hit an awkward grounder off the end of his bat toward first. Cole did not cover the bag and Rizzo evidently did not think he could beat Betts there. Rizzo also had to wait to field it because the ball appeared to have considerable spin on it. It went for an infield, RBI single that trimmed the Yankee lead to 5-1. Freeman followed with a two-run single and then Teoscar Hernández drilled a two-run double to center. Tie ballgame. All five runs were unearned.

– Freeman’s two RBI gave him 12 for the World Series, which means that he tied the MLB record for a single Fall Classic originally set by Bobby Richardson of the Yankees in the 1960 World Series.

– In addition to his costly fifth-inning error, Judge also made a sensational leaping catch to rob Freeman of at least a double in the fourth inning. With Betts on first, Freeman smacked the ball to deep center and Judge jumped at the wall to snare it. He crashed into the fence – cringe, Judge running into a wall in a game against the Dodgers, right? – and went down. But he appeared fine. He flipped the ball to Verdugo so Verdugo could get it into the infield to keep Betts from advancing.

Game MVP: Blake Treinen

Treinen, who threw 2.1 scoreless innings, including getting out of a two-on, one-out jam in the eighth and was the winning pitcher for the Dodgers. Give an assist to starter Walker Buehler, who closed the game with a scoreless ninth inning of relief for a save.

Highlights