As one of the most storied sports franchises, the New York Yankees have had a less-than-memorable past decade and a half.
Fans have waited 15 years — a long time, given the high expectations placed on the organization — to see their team again make the World Series.
The Fall Classic finally returned to the Bronx on Monday night, and it ended in disappointment. On baseball’s grandest stage, New York has left everyone wondering what went wrong as it faces a 3-0 series deficit to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
But what has happened to the Yankees? This doesn’t look like the same team that scored almost five runs a game during the American League Divisional and Championship series. Why, suddenly, have they only mustered seven total runs in the World Series?
New York has struggled in multiple areas, but one that sticks out most is their inability to move runners over and drive them in.
In Game 1, the Yankees left 11 runners on base while hitting 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position (RISP). In Game 2, they only left six runners on base, hitting 1-for-6 with RISP. Game 3 was similar, leaving eight runners on while hitting 2-for-6 with RISP.
In three games, the Bronx Bombers have left 25 runners on base while hitting 4-for-20 with RISP. For comparison, the Dodgers have only left 15 runners on base while hitting 3-for-19 with runners on.
When the Yankees struggled this season, they epitomized baseball’s three true outcomes: home run, walk or strikeout. In this series, the Yankees have struck out 31 times, 14 more than the Dodgers.
This brigade of strikeouts has been led by the Captain, Aaron Judge. Judge has gone 1-for-12 this series with a walk and seven strikeouts. He has proven to be one of the sport’s greatest regular-season players and will undoubtedly win his second AL MVP Award, but come playoff time, it looks like there’s a hole in his bat.
Judge isn’t the only one to blame, as New York’s six through nine hitters have only six hits in 43 at-bats. That group didn’t have an RBI until Alex Verdugo’s ninth-inning home run Monday night.
The Yankees have not come close to passing the eye test. Every at-bat consists of swinging for the fences and coming up with nothing. Only when the last inning comes around does the team start to string together some hits and walks, giving their fans a glimmer of hope, but their attempts are too little, too late.
Game 4 takes place Tuesday night in the Bronx, and the club has a chance to make history. Only five times has a Big Four American sports team successfully come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a playoff series.
The Yankees have their work cut out for them on Tuesday, but comebacks start with only one game — one game that will mean everything to a New York crowd that has waited a long time for this moment.
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