Dodgers Beat Yankees in Five Games to Win 2024 World Series
The 2024 World Series has come to an end and Fernando Valenzuela was smiling down as the Los Angeles Dodgers took down the New York Yankees, in a rematch of the 1981 Fall Classic.
In the ’81 series, Valenzuela was instrumental in that Dodgers teams’ victory over the boys from the Bronx in six games.
This time around was a shorter contest, with LA beating New York in five games. Coming into the series most people thought that this was going the distance, six games at least, probably seven. That, however, was not the case, with the Dodgers making relatively quick work of the Yankees.
The Dodgers flat-out outclassed the Yankees, plain and simple, winning the series four games to one. In games one and two, Los Angeles took care of business on their home field. In game one, the Yankees looked poised to get the win, leading by 3-2 with the Dodgers down to their last out.
Freddie Freeman came to bat with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the 10th and played hero. He hit a walk off grand slam off Nestor Cortesto give the Dodgers a 1-0 series lead with a 6-3 win. The next day the Dodgers bats came to play again, and they found themselves up two games to none after a 4-2 game two win.
In game three in New York, the Yankees had a chance to flip the script as games three, four and five would be played at Yankee Stadium. However, the change of scenery led to was more of the same, as the Dodgers won again in game three, also by the score of 4-2.
With a 3-0 lead, the series was pretty much over. No team has ever come back from down three games to zero in the World Series. With that being said, in game four, the Yankees didn’t just lay down and die. The offense finally came alive and slugged 11 runs to win the game handily.
That win sparked the hopes of the Yankees and their fans. Maybe the unthinkable was doable. Maybe they could come back from down 3-0. Unfortunately, hope only leads to more despair and the sparks were snuffed out in game five.
In that decisive game five, the Yankees bats stayed hot and they jumped out to an early 5-0 lead as Aaron Judge, Jazz Chisholm and Giancarlo Stanton homered. Then the fifth inning came around where the Dodgers capitalized on three Yankee errors to tie the game.
Errors by Judge and Volpe loaded the bases. This was followed by a Mookie Betts dribbler to first base where Gerrit Cole didn’t cover the bag on a ball hit to first base- man Anthony Rizzo, which plated LA’s first run.
Then Freddie Freeman and Teaoscar Hernandez both delivered two RBI hits to tie the game at 5-5. After the disastrous fifth inning, the balloon of Yankee stadium energy had popped.
The Yankees still had some offense left, and pulled back ahead thanks to another RBI by Stanton in the sixth inning, giving the home crowd some hope again. However, LA responded in the top of the eighth with two runs thanks to sacrifice flies by Gavin Lux and Mookie Betts. The Dodgers then brought out Walker Buehler to get the final three outs, which he did smoothly to clinch the World Series championship for Los Angeles.
The Yankees beat themselves; the pitching and defense came up short in big moments. They shrunk, while LA rose to the occasion. Congrats to the Dodgers who finally put all the questions about their organization to rest. Now baseball fans start to count the days until next spring.