Yankees must move on after brutal World Series loss: ‘This is what defines character’

Deesha Thosar

MLB Writer

LOS ANGELES — Juan Soto walked out of the Yankees clubhouse with a scowl. Aaron Boone walked down the hallway with furrowed eyebrows and a look of irritation he couldn’t hide. Even Aaron Judge, who likes to throw in a small smile at the end of his responses no matter the day or the outcome of a game, struggled to really get there. The mood was set by their exceptional silence. The only sound made was that of the clubhouse attendants smacking cleats against a table to get all the dirt off.

This one hurt.

“It’s a seven-game series. You’re going to lose tough ones,” Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. “We’ve lost tough ones in the past. This is what defines character. Yeah, it stings because of the magnitude. But I wouldn’t say anyone’s more pissed off than any other loss.”

The Yankees said all the right things, like they’d pick their heads up and get back at it on Saturday, but their miffed expressions told a different story after losing 6-3 to the Dodgers in the 10th inning of Game 1 of the World Series. You can’t blame them for being shocked or crestfallen; the stage was set for the Yankees to secure a win on the road right up until Freddie Freeman hit the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history off left-hander Nestor Cortes.

Despite their defensive blunders and a curious early hook on Gerrit Cole, the Yankees were one out away from a Game 1 victory when Cortes’ second pitch in 37 days — a 92 mph fastball, low and inside, right where Freeman likes to barrel the ball — was pummeled halfway up the right-field pavilion at Dodger Stadium. Cortes’ first pitch got Shohei Ohtani to fly out in foul territory, where left fielder Alex Verdugo tumbled into and over the railing and made a spectacular catch for the second out of the 10th inning. The Yankees never got the chance to celebrate that gutsy play as Mookie Betts was intentionally walked to load the bases and a Freeman-induced nightmare immediately followed.

“Maybe just two or three inches higher,” Cortes said when asked where he wanted his fastball to Freeman. “I thought I got it to the inside part of the plate where I wanted to, but I didn’t get it up enough.”

Cortes spent the days leading up to Friday’s relief appearance convincing the Yankees that he belonged on the World Series roster. He missed the final week of the regular season, as well as New York’s first two rounds of the postseason, with an elbow flexor strain. There was a clear need for his left-handed arm on the pitching staff, and Cortes badly wanted to help his team win. Boone believed he could with the Dodgers’ two best left-handed hitters due up.

“The reality is, he’s been throwing the ball really well the last few weeks as he’s gotten ready for this,” Boone said of Cortes. “I knew with one out there, it’d be tough to double up Shohei, if Tim Hill gets him on the ground. And then Mookie behind him is a tough matchup there, so, felt convicted with Nestor in that spot.”

While Cortes did more damage than good in Game 1, he should get at least one more chance in the Series to atone for his mistake. After all, he was hardly the only Yankee to slip up.

Soto overran a Kiké Hernández liner in right field in the fifth inning, turning what should have been a double into a triple. The Dodgers promptly cashed in on Soto’s misplay by hitting a sacrifice fly and scoring Hernández from third for the first run of the game. In the eighth, Ohtani ripped a double with an exit velocity of 113 mph to right that Soto fielded off the wall. He double-pumped before getting the throw in to second, where Gleyber Torres couldn’t handle the scoop as the ball ricocheted off his glove and into no-man’s land near the mound. Ohtani advanced to third — Soto was charged with an error — and Mookie Betts promptly hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 2-2.

Mistakes like that can’t happen at this point in the long season.

“Every little thing from the game is an opportunity for the offense to get another run,” Torres said. “And yeah, Ohtani went to third and Mookie hit the fly to center and it was a tie game. I have to make an adjustment and if I get an opportunity to block the ball, just keep it in the front and make it a little more simple.”

The Yankees overcame gaffes on defense and Boone’s questionable decision to pull Cole — he had allowed just one run and four hitters to reach safely through six-plus innings and 88 pitches — to reach the bottom of the 10th inning with a 3-2 lead. Playoff hero Giancarlo Stanton slugged his fourth home run in his past four games; this one a two-run shot in the sixth that gave the Yankees a 2-1 lead. Stanton needs one more home run this October to become the first Yankee in franchise history to hit seven homers in a single postseason.

But Yankees triumphs that would have loomed large in Game 1 are now buried somewhere under the Dodgers’ dogpile at home plate.

“We had our chances there,” said Judge, who went 1 for 5, struck out three times and left two runners on while popping out to end the top of the ninth. “Kind of back and forth the whole game. We had our opportunities to put them away. We just weren’t able to do it. And they came up with a big clutch hit there at the end.”

The Yankees could’ve used more of those. They’ll now give the ball to Carlos Rodón for Game 2 on Saturday — with Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the bump for the Dodgers — hoping the lefty can carry them back to the Bronx with a series split. As Rizzo said, brutal losses can define a team’s character. The Yankees have at least one more day in L.A. to show who they are.

Deesha Thosar is an MLB reporter for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.

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