BRONX, NY — They said one game and took it from there. Of course the Yankees were not going to be swept in four games and at home in the Bronx. The Dodgers parade in Los Angeles and their second World Series championship in five years waits another day.
Game 5 is at Yankee Stadium Wednesday evening, the Dodgers Jack Flaherty and Yankees Gerrit Cole on the mound, a rematch of of Game 1 at Dodgers Stadium. For now, though the Yankees are still alive and staved off elimination, with their 11-4 win. The Yankees sent their message and they don’t plan to go down without a fight.
This World Series belongs to the Dodgers, 3-1, but the Yankees can narrow the deficit and force a Game 6 Friday night at Dodger Stadium. It is a task for these Yankees to win four straight, no team in World Series history has overcome an 0-3 deficit and won it all.
But if the Yankees have a say in this they have to continue the onslaught. Game 4, another capacity crowd 49,354, again hushed when Freddie Freeman hit a two-run home run in the first inning off Yankees rookie Luis Gil.
Fourth in the series for the potential series MVP, the Dodgers early lead, but the Yankees showed their fight and were the resilient bunch they have been known to be.
Anthony Volpe with a grand slam homer and Austin Wells the first pair of Yankees teammates age 26 or younger to home run in the same World Series game since Tony Kubek and Mickey Mantle in 1957 of Game 3.
“We’ve been through so much the whole year,”said Volpe who had been 1-for-12 in the series, a youngster now in the Yankees record books and hearing a crowd cheer “Volpe, Volpe” that had been heard so many times with those Yankees legends of World Series fame.
He is now the first player in World Series history to record four RBI and two steals in a game, something he envisioned growing up as a Yankees fan, though not as dramatic and significant as this.
He said “We’re not going to go down easy at all.” Of course the Yankees prevented a Dodgers celebration on their home turf. Luis Gil for the most part did his job and manager Aaron Boone had his bullpen worked to perfection. Luke Weaver retired all four batters he faced, three strikeouts on 21 pitches.
However it was more than Volpe. More than the pitching as the Yankees also scored off a Dodgers bullpen game, a plan manager Dave Roberts had for Game 4. It didn’t work, then again the plan was to go with Flaherty in Game 5. And the Yankees will not be intimidated because they are trying to pull off what seems to be impossible, all along, though Boone and his team said they would come out fighting.
They scored their most runs in the series, only seven coming in the first three games. A Yankees offense that got production from the bottom of their lineup without Juan Soto, Aaron Judge, or Giancarlo Stanton having an impact. Judge, though got ignited with an RBI, perhaps a hit that will get him going.
No team has forced a Game 6 after trailing 3-0 in the World Series, the Yankees again taking this first step to defy those odds. And Volpe also showing an All-Star glove in the infield also got some rave reviews.
“You finally got to see,” said Boone about Volpe. “The top blow off Yankee Stadium in a World Series game.” It was also Boone’s first win managing a World Series game.
Overall, though, that Volpe grand slam was the ignition, a spark to the Yankees offense that saw him, catcher Austin Wells, and Alex Verdugo combine for five hits. Wells with a home run in the sixth inning, and Gleyber Torres with a home run in the 8th, a Dodgers pitching relief core that witnessed this Yankees willingness to continue their fight.
And the Volpe blast was the first player in history to hit a go-ahead grand slam when facing elimination in World Series history.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. said: “We came out there and attacked them. What we had to do continue to fight.” And Roberts said nobody expected the Yankees to not continue their fight.
Regardless, the Dodgers still have the advantage, the odd are against the Yankees. Certain, though, are the Yankees going with their ace (Cole) in Game 5. They plan to take this to a Game 5, force a Game 6, and a decisive Game 7.
They finally broke out Tuesday night in the Bronx. It wasn’t the famous “Rumble in the Jungle” of that Ali-Frazier bout of 50-years ago. It was the Yankees continuing their fight and not laying down.
Rich Mancuso is a senior writer and contributor at LatinoSports.com – X (Twitter) @Ring786, Facebook.com/Rich Mancuso
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