Author: Deesha Thosar

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NEW YORK — The stadium started emptying out in the seventh inning. Beating traffic became more valuable than staying through the end of a hopeless playoff game that cost the equivalent of a mortgage to attend. The product the Yankees put on the field for their first home World Series game in 15 years was so underwhelming that being anywhere else was better than sticking around until the end. 

The Yankees looked like a team that still hadn’t recovered from Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam in Game 1. So, when the same guy hit a two-run shot in the first inning of Game 3, the cut was deep. 

The atmosphere in the Bronx seemed to mirror the mood in the home dugout: sapped of faith and energy. 

“It’s all on the line for a championship,” a flashing message on the center-field jumbotron reminded the weary crowd. Apparently, the players didn’t see it.

They say it’s not over until the fat lady sings. In the Yankees’ case, Fat Joe already sang. 

“​​We just gotta keep relying on each other and keep playing the game we’ve played all year long,” Yankees captain Aaron Judge said. “Keep playing the game that got us into this position.”

[RELATED: Full coverage of the World Series] 

There was no sense of urgency for the Yankees on Monday as they lost 4-2 to the Dodgers, which dropped them to 0-3 in the World Series, perhaps because what we’ve seen so far is the best they’ve got. The Yankees reached the World Series by knocking out the Royals and the Guardians, two teams that were defeated by New York even when it wasn’t doing everything right. Against those two clubs, the Yankees got away with their inattention to detail. Against the superteam Dodgers — who have outplayed the Yankees via a deeper lineup, superior rotation, sharper defense and better bullpen — the Yankees’ flaws are being exposed.

One of their pitfalls all year was their response when things got ugly. When the Yankees went 5-16 over a 21-game period this summer, they were making mistakes on the basepaths, committing errors on defense, and playing nonchalantly on top of it. Spectacular individual performances from Judge and Juan Soto were nice distractions. But we’ve seen the Yankees need longer than a seven-game stretch to climb out of their slump before collectively returning to timely hitting and pitching. 

So, when the Yankees tell us this is part of who they’ve been all year, we should believe them. The version of the Yankees they need to be now is the one that shows emotion, gets fired up, and cleans up its act from the first pitch to the last. The Yankees have to look alive to keep this World Series going. They can try waking up by being honest about who they’ve been for most of the year: a team that acts as the supporting cast to the starring roles of a few top players. The formula leads to wins only when the stars come through for the team. 

Interested to know who the Dodgers are? Just watch how they played in the first three games of the World Series. 

Freddie Freeman has now hit a home run in each of the first three games in this Fall Classic. Shohei Ohtani, playing Game 3 with a partially dislocated left shoulder, found a way to get on base despite being in obvious pain. Walker Buehler carried a no-hitter into the fourth inning and recorded his second career World Series start featuring at least five innings, no runs allowed and two or fewer hits. 

Los Angeles’ starters have a 1.62 ERA against New York, compared to a 6.00 ERA from a Yankees’ rotation that was supposed to be superior. The Dodgers have scored twice as many runs as the Yankees (14-7). 

“There’s just gotta be urgency,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I just don’t want to let these guys up for air.”

It shows. The mentality that Roberts has plugged into his clubhouse has the Dodgers one win away from sweeping the World Series.

“If that team wins three in a row,” Yankees outfielder Alex Verdugo said of the Dodgers, “then why can’t we win three in a row?”

Sure, technically, there’s nothing stopping the Yankees from winning three straight and forcing a Game 7. But who that has watched this flawed team play all year actually believes they can? Even if the Yankees internally believe they could still stun the world and pull it off, that would require a sense of urgency and fight from the Bronx Bombers; two crucial championship qualities that they failed to summon in Game 3, which the World Series’ 122-year history assures was a must-win situation. 

The Yankees have grown less competitive in each game of this series. Their at-bats on Monday were mostly passive until, down to their final out and trailing by four runs, Verdugo hit a two-run home run off right-hander Michael Kopech. Three of the Yankees’ four runs in Games 2 and 3 — and four of their nine hits — didn’t arrive until the ninth inning. That’s not a good thing. It only gives manager Aaron Boone permission to spout tired lines about his team persevering until the last out despite their deficits proving to be insurmountable. 

If that’s New York’s version of a fight, the Dodgers can win the next round — and finish this bout — even after taking the first punches. 

“Credit to them that they’ve been able to hold us down and control us,” Boone said. “Then, when we have had some opportunities, we haven’t cashed in. Ultimately, that’s what this comes down to.” 

At least the Mets knocked these Dodgers down. Known as the Yankees’ stepbrothers, the Mets didn’t give an inch in their National League Championship Series with L.A. — they were just overmatched when it came to roster talent. The Mets’ hitting and pitching paled in comparison to the Yankees’ in the regular season, and yet they forced six games out of the Dodgers and a return trip to Los Angeles. 

The Yankees look like they’re ready to go home. 

The only MLB team to ever climb out of a 3-0 hole in a best-of-seven series is the 2004 Red Sox, who won the final four games of the 2004 ALCS against the Yankees en route to winning the World Series. Not exactly a memory that will make the Yankees feel warm and fuzzy, right? But a couple of years back, the Yankees tried drawing inspiration from their division rivals when they watched Red Sox highlights from that 2004 ALCS in an attempt to get out of their own 3-0 hole against the Astros in the 2022 ALCS. It didn’t work, and not just because that was a comical idea in the first place. Houston wound up sweeping them out of the playoffs that year.

Two years later, the Yankees are on the brink of being swept again, except this time it will be much more excruciating if they don’t leave everything they’ve got on the field. They’re already the first World Series team in 12 years to drop the first three games. What will be remembered, though, is if they become the first pennant winner since the 2012 Tigers to be swept (by the Giants). It’s a distinction the Dodgers look primed — itching, even — to deliver Tuesday.

“We know the odds are stacked against us,” Yankees southpaw Nestor Cortes said. “But this team is too resilient. I think we showed enough fight in us to come back. If there’s a team out there that can do it, that’ll be us.”

We’ll believe it when we see it. 

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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LOS ANGELES — Some of the reasons behind the Yankees sinking into a 0-2 hole against the Dodgers were predictable.

Carlos Rodón has had turbulent outings this postseason, and he had another one Saturday in Game 2 of the World Series. At least a couple of Yankees players have struggled defensively all year, and those repeat offenders showed up again this weekend at Chavez Ravine. The regular season routinely featured poor production from the bottom of New York’s lineup, and that was a problem in each of the first two games of the Series. 

But none of those factors are as flagrant as the biggest one — the one that the Yankees seem unprepared to overcome.

[RELATED: Full coverage of the World Series] 

Aaron Judge is lost at the plate. 

He’s striking out more often than he’s getting on base. He’s chasing pitches he would typically watch fly out of the zone. He’s rocking back and forth in the batter’s box — which, according to Yankees hitting coach James Rowson, means he’s trying to find his rhythm — rather than standing frozen and locked in like he did during his record-breaking regular season. He’s whiffing at mistakes that he would normally punish for home runs. 

Simply put, he’s not doing his job.

And when the Yankees are desperate for offense, like they have been in this star-studded Fall Classic, and one of the best hitters on the planet isn’t doing his job, the results are back-to-back losses against an elite Dodgers team that has outplayed them in every facet of the game.

“I definitely gotta step up,” Judge said after going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in the Yankees’ 4-2 loss Saturday. “I gotta do my job, when guys are out there doing their job getting on base, I’m failing them. I’m not backing them up.”

The two other stars in the Yankees’ lineup have hit throughout October, and are virtually the only ones doing so in the Fall Classic.

Juan Soto is locked in at the plate; his solo shot in the third inning of Game 2 was the Yankees’ only hit off Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Soto’s liner off the right field wall in the ninth inning was just the second hit of the night for New York, and soon he scored its only other run when Giancarlo Stanton followed with a scorcher down the left field line. 

Sandwiched between the two rockets? Judge’s sixth strikeout of the Series. 

Soto now has four home runs, nine RBIs and a 1.160 OPS through 11 games this postseason. Stanton has six home runs, 14 RBIs and a 1.098 OPS. Judge, meanwhile, is batting .150 (6-for-40) with 19 strikeouts, two homers, six RBIs and a .605 OPS. 

“I think he made mistakes against me,” Soto said of facing Yamamoto, who struck out Judge twice. “He made a couple of good pitches in the first at-bat, and then he showed me everything. He showed me everything that he got in my first at-bat. So I was ready for anything in my second at-bat. He made a mistake and I just didn’t miss it.”

Soto, eternally bursting with confidence, seems to have the playoffs all figured out. What’s stopping Judge from achieving similar feats?

“Right now, he’s probably not feeling his best,” Soto said. “It’s just a tough moment for him right now.”

The Yankees captain acknowledged he’s been expanding the strike zone, as the world-class plate discipline that allowed him to draw the most walks (133) in the major leagues this year has escaped him. He added that his mechanics at the plate are “getting there,” and that his encouraging at-bats at the end of Game 1 didn’t translate into Game 2. Judge said the struggles he’s going through at the plate right now are “a little similar” to the struggles he faced in April, when he started the year in a slump, slashing .207/.340/.414 through his first 31 games. 

But the difference at this time of the year is that he doesn’t have the cushion of a long season ahead of him to get his mechanics straightened out. Judge has to make every pitch in the Bronx count, if not with a big hit, then at least a walk. The presumptive AL MVP noted that Yamamoto gave him a pitch to hit in the sixth inning, when he was ahead in the count 2-0 and the Dodgers righty threw him a fastball down and in. 

That’s a pitch, Judge said, that he’s usually able to connect on. Instead, he kept his bat on his shoulder and watched it settle untouched for strike one. 

“At times you want to try to make things happen instead of letting the game come to you,” Judge said. “I think that’s what it really comes down to. You see Gleyber [Torres] out there on base, Juan’s getting on base, trying to make something happen. You’re not going to get every pitch in the zone. So you have to take your walks and set up for Big G [Stanton].”

Judge puts a lot of pressure on himself to come through for his team. It’s never been about personal statistics for the six-time All-Star. What he cares about most is lifting the Yankees when they need him to — and they’ve relied on Judge throughout his career to come through in the clutch because, normally, he can. While Soto and Stanton are doing their parts, the American League champs still need Judge to be Judge if they’re going to be world champs. 

“He’s got time to help us win some games,” Stanton said.

Sure, but not much. Judge has to figure out a way to slow the game down so that he can compress the zone and tap back into the plate discipline and power that make him one of the greatest hitters of this generation. 

The Yankees ultimately cannot rise without him. 

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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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. 

[RELATED: Full coverage of the World Series]

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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LOS ANGELES — When Juan Soto takes the field before first pitches in the Bronx, he sprints to his position in right field and gets the crowd going. As spectacular an entertainer as he is a disciplined hitter, he raises his arms and implores the home fans sitting directly behind him to bring animated energy. Sometimes he interacts with the crowd by signing baseballs. And after his first ever roll call from the bleacher creatures, he responded by taking a full bow for them. Most days, though, he puts his arms over his head and makes the shape of a heart when he hears his name being chanted.

It’s all love for Soto and the Yankees as they get ready to take on the Dodgers in the World Series. 

“I feel like it’s them. They make it really easy for me,” Soto said Thursday, when asked why he’s fit in so well with the Yankees. “They really welcomed me, really nice, and how they treat me and how they make me feel when I stepped in that clubhouse in spring training. They really make it easy for me. I think they are the big part of this, that’s why I feel really comfortable with where I’m at and how happy I am right now.”

Friday’s Game 1 also happens to be Soto’s 26th birthday, and there’s no other way he’d rather celebrate than by getting a win and a leg up over Los Angeles. Winning is what Soto cherishes to his core, and it will be at the top of his list of priorities when he’s exploring free agency this offseason, too.

In Soto’s best-case scenario, he helps the Yankees win the Fall Classic with more clutch at-bats like the one he had in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series in Cleveland, and he hits the market with his stock peaking. We know he turned down a reported $440 million in 2022 from the Nationals, the team that signed him out of the Dominican Republic and later won a World Series with him, not long before he was traded to the Padres. Entering this season, it was widely believed Soto could command a contract worth at least $500 million. Then he posted career highs in bWAR (8.8) and OPS+ (178) for a full season. 

Don’t be surprised if Soto’s overall contract value surpasses $600 million this winter. 

[RELATED: Full coverage of the World Series]

“I would say Scott [Boras] has been doing a really good job to not make it hard for me,” Soto said. “He’s been taking all the bullets and everything. I’m just focusing on playing baseball right now. That’s what I’ve been doing since day one, just focusing on baseball, and anything that comes up with [free agency], I just let him [handle] it.”

All of which begs the question, what’s the Yankees’ best-case scenario? Of course, they want to win the World Series with Soto in the only season he’s certain to be in pinstripes. But that would hardly make their negotiations with him this winter any simpler. In fact, if he’s wearing a second World Series ring as he tours ballparks and meets with team owners in the offseason, that will only add more zeroes to his asking price. 

One of those team owners is expected to be Mets billionaire Steve Cohen, who has significant money coming off the books this winter and has shown he will go after a coveted free agent if he really wants to. Since winning is what matters most to Soto, the Mets just showed the world that they could block out the noise, put their heads down, and compete all the way to the playoffs — their enchanted season finally finishing in the NLCS against the Dodgers, just two wins shy of reaching the Fall Classic despite no one expecting them to even sniff October baseball. The trifecta of Cohen, top baseball executive David Stearns and promising first-year manager Carlos Mendoza should make Queens an attractive borough for impending free agents, including Soto. 

The left-handed slugger is expected to field several offers this offseason, with big spenders such as the Mets, Phillies, Cubs, Dodgers and Giants, and maybe even the Blue Jays, Red Sox and Cardinals all potentially in play as landing spots. But in the end, it could very well come down to a two-team bidding war in New York, and that should unnerve Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner. If Cohen really wants to go after Soto, it’s hard to envision the Yankees beating his offer. Really, the Yankees cannot let it get down to that if they’re resolute on keeping Soto in the Bronx.

The Yankees will have to make an extremely competitive offer to keep Soto long term. This isn’t the time to play games, cross their fingers and hope Soto will stay, just because they traded for him last winter and have experienced a majestic season together. Soto has won before, and he’s been elite everywhere he’s played. Moreover, he reminded all 30 teams this postseason how quickly he can change the game with one at-bat, one swing, and send his team to the World Series. Several owners figure to be willing to bet the house on such a generational superstar and join the Soto sweepstakes this offseason. 

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When considering that he’s arguably the second-best young free agent in the history of the sport — behind only Álex Rodríguez — it’s fair to wonder, other than the obvious, what separates Soto from the rest of his peers. It starts with a dedication to his craft that even stands out to fellow generational talent Aaron Judge.

“I think it might have been early May, we were in Minnesota, I think he may have had a couple bad games,” Judge explained. “I saw him in the cage, he showed up early doing work with [Yankees assistant hitting coach] Pat Roessler. And I was talking to him like, ‘Hey, what are you working on? What are you doing?’ And he was like, ‘Ah, I just don’t feel right. This doesn’t feel right. This doesn’t feel right.’ And also, I’m looking up at the scoreboard, and he’s hitting .320, 15 homers. I’m like, ‘I think you’re doing alright.’ 

“So, it’s impressive to see, even a guy like him, he looks like he’s got it all figured out, he continues to put in the work, put in the dedication year in and year out. He’s one of the best players in the game, a superstar, and he continues to want to improve and continue to do better.” 

Soto’s iconic 10th inning at-bat in Game 5 of the ALCS in Cleveland had me wondering if he’s the most confident player at the plate in baseball right now, particularly as someone who can deliver in those high-pressure situations — so, I asked Aaron Boone. 

The Yankees manager paused for 10 full seconds before answering whether Soto is the most confident player he’s ever managed, or currently playing in the game. He appeared to search for the best way to answer “yes” without disparaging his other great, potentially Cooperstown-bound sluggers.

“I mean, I don’t know,” Boone chuckled. “I think we have a number of those players that are pretty confident in what they can do. He’s one of the greats that I’ve ever managed, but I’m managing a few of those guys. One of the things that’s certainly been enjoyable for me is getting to know Juan, the person and who he is. And to see his at-bat quality all year. 

“I go back to the first spring training game where there were a lot of eyes on that, and it’s like you became very aware very early that, I’ve described it as, his at-bats are like wars, battles. It’s not too often that you see the crowd feed off of ball one, strike one [like] with Juan, because he creates this theatrical battle between him and the pitcher as much as anyone I’ve ever seen.”

It’s hard to believe there’s a manager out there who would want anyone other than Soto at the plate right now when the game — the season — is on the line. For one, Soto’s elite plate discipline puts him on another playing field. He hardly ever makes mistakes, and when he does, he adjusts his swing decisions within the same at-bat. Although 26 years young, he enters every high-leverage situation believing in his heart of hearts that he’s the best player on the diamond. Soto’s unrelenting temperament gives him the chance to wait for the pitch he knows he can hit. The bigger the moment, the higher the stakes, the more likely he is to seize his golden opportunity. 

All of this has built Soto’s mythology and made him a monumental figure in the history of baseball, already. Just keep in mind that even though he has clearly relished playing for the Yankees and batting in front of Judge, especially now that they’re four wins away from winning the whole damn thing, that doesn’t make his free agency a foregone conclusion. Other front offices are salivating at the thought of adding Soto to their rosters, and if there’s a wide enough gap between those proposals and what the Yankees are offering, Soto’s time in the Bronx could be over next week. 

Unlike his interactions with the fan base on a nightly basis, the decision of where to sign a long-term contract and spend the next decade or more of his career won’t just be about love. 

Oftentimes, the determination to win can be a business. 

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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The Yankees have been involved in several close games this postseason. They’ve yet to be in a close series. That figures to change in the Fall Classic, as New York takes on the National League’s top-seeded Los Angeles Dodgers.

The heavyweight matchup is sure to test the depth of both rosters. Here are X-factors who could swing the 2024 World Series in the Yankees’ favor. 

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1. Carlos Rodón, starting pitcher

It will be important for the Yankees to save their bullpen arms in a long series against the potent Dodgers, so any extra length their starters can give will go a long way. That starts with Gerrit Cole setting the tone in his Game 1 start, no doubt. But it will be equally important for Rodón to, at the very least, aim for a quality start in his first game of the Fall Classic. Rodón’s outings can be a bit of a roller-coaster if he’s struggling to focus and keep his emotions in check. But when he’s on, he’s worthy of being the ace of a pitching staff.

Fortunately for the left-hander, the Yankees don’t need him to be an ace to win their 28th World Series title. Really, he just needs to pitch like he did for half the season — when he recorded 16 quality starts out of a career-high 32 outings and 175 innings pitched. The Yankees have to hope all of that workload hasn’t caught up to him. Rodón said he watched the first six innings of Game 6 of the National League Championship Series between the Mets and Dodgers before he changed the channel to football, but what stood out to him was how obvious it was that right-hander Sean Manaea was gassed at this point in October.

RELATED: Dodgers’ 5 biggest X-factors vs. Yankees in 2024 World Series

Rodón registered an excellent outing sandwiched between two subpar starts this postseason. In the ALDS against the Royals, he was pulled after giving up four earned runs in just 3.2 innings. After six innings of one-run ball in his first start of the ALCS, he lasted just 4.2 innings in his second. Rodón noted how important the rest days were ahead of his first pitch in this series. And if he accomplishes his goal of pitching three times through the order, the Yankees and their entire pitching staff will be in better shape.

2. Giancarlo Stanton, designated hitter

Stanton has tallied five home runs, 11 RBIs, 10 hits, five walks and six runs in nine playoff games this October. These are video-game numbers. Amid a roster full of players yearning to win the championship, Stanton has been the most vocal about how nothing — not even his insane stats — matters unless the Yankees finish the job. His deep-seated determination to win a title has carried him this far, but it will be truly fascinating if he can keep up this pace in the World Series.

RELATED: Yankees-Dodgers: Ranking the 24 best players of the 2024 World Series

If he can, the Yankees look unbeatable with a lineup that boasts Juan Soto and Aaron Judge before Stanton even gets to the on-deck circle. There’s been a lot of talk about Soto being the one that pushed the Yankees over the edge and into the Fall Classic, and in many ways, he has. But Soto is new around here, and the clubhouse respects what Stanton has had to overcome in the Bronx (years of booing because of his injuries and underperformance) to reach this point: American League Championship Series MVP. If Stanton’s next act can somehow top his last one, he’ll be carrying the offense to a ring.

3. Luke Weaver, relief pitcher

Man, are the Yankees putting a ton of responsibility on this journeyman’s shoulders, and he has answered the bell almost every step of the way. Ever since the Yankees ended the Clay Holmes-closer experiment and promoted Weaver (a starter-turned-reliever) to begin earning saves, all he’s done is exceed expectations. Weaver entered the postseason with just four career saves — all of which were secured in the final month of the regular season — and it was a real question jowl he would fare in the postseason. Weaver quickly responded by pitching six scoreless innings and collecting four saves in his first five career playoff appearances.

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Proving he’s human, Weaver finally faltered in Game 3 of the ALCS, blowing his first save when he gave up a game-tying home run to Jhonkensy Noel in the ninth inning against the Guardians. But he bounced back in Game 5, pitching two scoreless innings, allowing just one hit to Cleveland and earning the win that sent the Yankees to the World Series. Up next, facing the star-studded Dodgers lineup will be the biggest challenge of his career. Weaver has surprised everyone down the stretch. Now, it’s tough to see New York winning without him playing a key role. 

4. Gleyber Torres, second baseman

The Yankees veteran has had a love-hate relationship with the Bronx fan base — mostly driven by his 18 errors, the most of any second baseman in MLB this year — but he’s received nothing but support from those that know him best within the organization. That confidence from his manager and teammates seemed to spur a different level in Torres ever since he was moved up to the leadoff spot in mid-August. Torres’ .755 OPS, six home runs, 11 doubles, 25 walks and 22 RBIs over 56 games batting leadoff are by far his best numbers of any spot in the lineup. Since he started setting the table in front of Soto and Judge, he started drawing more walks, too.

RELATED: How Yankees, Dodgers should pitch to each other’s stars: Smoltz’s World Series preview

We’ve seen how that enhanced plate approach has translated to this postseason; he’s drawn just as many walks (7) as Judge and Soto across nine games in the ALDS and ALCS. Torres’ bat provides another key element to a Yankees offense that is already plenty lethal without him. Not only will fans forgive and forget his rocky season if he continues to be productive in the World Series, but Torres is getting hot ahead of his upcoming free agency. After seven years in the Bronx, he’s forcing the Yankees front office to make a difficult decision. If he can continue doing his part at the top of the order, it’s getting easier to envision Torres in pinstripes next season and beyond.

5. Jazz Chisholm, third baseman

The Yankees were a trade deadline winner with their acquisition of Chisholm proving to be a huge success right away. Chisholm slugged nine home runs and collected 14 RBIs in his first 20 games with the Bombers, all while stealing six bases and posting a 1.029 OPS. His jolt of power, speed and energy were exactly what the Yankees needed at the time — after falling into a rut around the All-Star break, they entered the stretch run with a legitimate new threat in their lineup. Then we saw Chisholm’s fire on the field after Maikel Garcia’s slide into Anthony Volpe in the ALDS against the Royals, and it provided another edge on a Yankees roster that is so buttoned up that it can sometimes come off as boring.

RELATED: Who makes Yankees’, Dodgers’ all-time World Series starting lineups?

Chisholm, however, has cooled off considerably at the plate. He’s batting just .147 (5-for-34) with a .481 OPS, two walks and two stolen bases this postseason. When he does get on base, he’s still a menace on the basepaths. The Yankees don’t necessarily need Chisholm to display the power he did when initially acquired from Miami. They just need him to draw some walks and rip some singles so that others behind him can bring him in. That would be the best-case scenario for the bottom of the Yankees’ lineup, and perhaps their dangerous top.

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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The magic ran out, but the movement has just begun.

It’s different for the New York Mets to say the season didn’t end in a total collapse with players and staff alike proud of what they delivered across 175 games — and for the fan base to be right there with them, believing it. 

After all, the 2024 Mets advanced to the playoffs for the first time in eight years and vanquished the Braves, the Brewers, and the Phillies on the way. They took the superteam Dodgers to Game 6 of the National League Championship Series, despite projection systems giving them a 5% chance to win the NLDS, let alone come within two wins of the World Series.

Once their unexpected and iconic season finally ended in Los Angeles on Sunday night, there remained a handful of legitimate reasons for the Mets to look ahead with optimism and hope. Let’s take a moment to examine how this season’s heroics have set the Mets up to be consistent contenders, with a new standard for success to achieve annually. 

1. Mark Vientos is a ‘bona fide big-leaguer’

That’s how first baseman Pete Alonso described the 24-year-old Vientos, who was left off the Opening Day roster and fought his way to the starting third base job by the middle of May. Once Vientos was in the majors for good this year, he never let his OPS drop under .837 across 111 regular-season games. He was solid on defense at a tough position in which he had only 21 games of MLB experience before this year. Then he raised his own level this October, crushing five home runs, collecting 24 RBIs, batting .327 and posting a .998 OPS across 13 playoff games. 

“When I’m talking about some of our younger players and the way they develop, he’s right there at the top,” manager Carlos Mendoz told reporters of Vientos in Los Angeles on Sunday. “It wasn’t easy for him. Had to fight for an opportunity. He finally got it and ran with it. And when you look at the numbers in the regular season, he’s a big part, a big reason why we got to this point and then the playoffs.” 

Vientos, a couple of years removed from his September 2022 MLB debut, exceeded expectations with his consistency this year. The Plantation, Fla. product showed the kind of makeup and put on the type of performance that a front office can start building around. Whether the powers that be will decide Vientos’ future is at third base largely depends on if the Mets can strike a deal with Alonso, who is imminently approaching free agency. 

But regardless of Vientos’ infield position, the Mets should not hesitate to take a page from their Atlanta division rivals and lock him up to a long-term deal. In the span of a season, Vientos’ outlook went from let’s see what he can provide, to genuine excitement for the foreseeable future.

2. Money — lots of money — is coming off the books, and the farm is sprouting

Last winter, the Mets gambled on one-year deals for Sean Manaea and Luis Serverino, both of whom became essential pieces in their deep playoff run. Now, New York is in a good position where both starters would love to come back, and there is an intriguing top free-agent arm in Corbin Burnes to consider adding to the rotation. Pitchers who are on the books for 2025 include: Kodai Senga, David Peterson, Tylor Megill, Paul Blackburn, and Jose Butto.

Plus, the Mets will have more financial wiggle room with a ton of money coming off the books. Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer were owed over $57 million combined in 2024 and that will no longer be the case next year. The Mets finished this season with an estimated $336 million payroll, and that number is expected to be slashed to around $170 million heading into next month’s free agency, per FanGraphs.

But the organization’s long-term goal has always been to build a sustainable contender through critical free-agent pickups as well as farm-system development. We saw some of that vision come to fruition this year, thanks to Luisangel Acuña’s encouraging MLB debut and Vientos’ noted ascension. Next year, New York’s top pitching prospect Brandon Sproat should be in the mix as a possible rotation addition, as well as potential roster upgrades from top infielders Ronny Mauricio and Jett Williams and top outfield prospect Drew Gilbert.

As Francisco Lindor said Sunday, “There’s something special going on here.”

This year’s roster provided a taste of how far the organization can go when blending core veterans (Lindor, Brandon Nimmo, Edwin Diaz and Starling Marte) with up-and-coming youngsters (Francisco Alvarez, Vientos and Acuńa). That concept should be back in play for years to come for these Mets.

3. The new regime is in sync

The trifecta of owner Steve Cohen, new president of baseball operations David Stearns and first-year manager Mendoza formed an excellent, stable foundation for the organization to continue building off of. Cohen got more involved in the day-to-day, becoming more visible and approachable to his staff members and players. Stearns did what he does best, stuffing the Mets roster on the margins with savvy moves and setting up the runway that allowed the team to finish two wins away from the World Series. Mendoza’s calm and well-balanced attitude, particularly in times of deep distress and ultimate highs, formed a sense of fearlessness within the clubhouse. 

In the end, it all led to respect. The Mets this season became a normal organization — a place that free-agent players would love to come play for — maybe Juan Soto? — especially those who have something to prove; a family that doesn’t just mind a little fun, but will lean into the eccentricities that allow people to be themselves and push their efforts to the ultimate limit; and a team that won’t dwell in the basement, but will fight its way out because the benchmark is a championship.  

There is legitimate trust and a complete buy-in from players and staff members who operate under Cohen, Stearns and Mendoza. Those three leaders made it not only believable that the Mets’ success can be sustainable, but they will make sure of it. The Mets have made the postseason in back-to-back years just twice (1999-2000, 2015-2016) in the franchise’s history. The new regime has made it possible to consider, for perhaps the first time ever, that the Mets can commit to doing what they did this year on an annual basis. 

“I just told the guys how proud I was because, not only we became a really good team, we became a family,” Mendoza said. “And now we raised the bar. Expectations now, this is what we should strive for every year, to be playing deep into October. And we showed that this year.”

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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NEW YORK — Friday evening at Citi Field began with The Temptations singing their 1965 hit single “My Girl” in an ode to Francisco Lindor’s walk-up song. Lindor, while warming up on the field, smiled and sang along to the lyrics. Pete Alonso, stretching before what could be his final home game as a Met, joined in, too, and pretty soon the crowd — understandably tense before an elimination game — relaxed a little. Watching the jovial scene unfold in Queens, it was hard to tell that the Mets had lost by eight runs on each of the previous two days and were facing elimination. 

If they seemed loose and carefree mere minutes before southpaw David Peterson threw the first pitch of the game, it’s because that’s how they showed up to Citi Field ahead of Game 5 of the National League Championship Series. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza walked into the hitters’ meeting and everyone was smiling. Hours before their most important game of the year — yes, another one of those — New York’s happy-go-lucky attitude foreshadowed the pain they would inflict on the Dodgers.

“That’s who we are,” Mendoza said. “There’s no tomorrow for us. But we’ve been in this situation before. So, nothing new.”

After Peterson stranded Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani on second in the first inning — lifting the crowd’s energy from unease to optimism — Alonso followed by lifting a three-run blast off Jack Flaherty in the bottom of the frame. The Polar Bear’s fourth home run of October was a harbinger of the offensive outburst that was to come. The Mets tallied 14 hits, the second-most in postseason franchise history, in their 12-6 win over the Dodgers in Game 5. 

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The onslaught was a product of sticking to the plan, capitalizing on Flaherty’s drop in velocity and refusing to chase outside the zone. The Mets wound up tagging Flaherty for eight runs in just three innings. Besides Alonso’s long ball, they drew key walks, enjoyed timely hitting, and played small ball to overwhelm Los Angeles’ pitching staff. Starling Marte went 4-for-5 with three RBIs, Lindor collected a stand-up RBI triple, Jesse Winker reached base in four of his five plate appearances and catcher Francisco Alvarez went 3-for-4, too. 

On top of all the scoring, the Mets didn’t strike out once — a feat unseen in the postseason since the 2002 World Series by the Angels.

Friday was the kind of complete effort the Mets needed to remind themselves of their ceiling. 

“The quality of at-bats that we had, the intensity that we needed every inning, we understood that,” Lindor said. “And we had to give everything that we had, and that’s what we did.”

As the Dodgers threatened to put an end to this improbable run, the Mets leaned on the experience and the results that got them to this point. Their slugging first baseman, throughout these past few victorious weeks, has been right in the middle of it. Of Alonso’s five career postseason homers, four have given the Mets the lead — including three in the past two weeks alone. Not bad for one of baseball’s most powerful hitters just weeks away from entering free agency. 

Like Betts said on Wednesday, the Mets didn’t become one of the final four teams standing because of luck. They also didn’t reach this point because of a McDonald’s mascot or a hit Latin pop song. On Friday, the Mets reminded everyone why they’re only two wins away from advancing to the World Series: When they’re at their best, they can beat anyone. 

“We’ll be ready. We love opportunities,” Alonso said. “This is what we want to continue to play for. Today was all about, figure it out, get to Game 6. And we have that opportunity, and it’s going to be the same mentality: figure it out, get to 7. That’s what it is. Survive the day. And we did. And we’re really, really excited for the opportunity coming up.”

In a season overloaded with surprises, the Mets have the opportunity to pull off their greatest upset yet. They forced a flight back to Los Angeles for Game 6, which will take place Sunday night at Chavez Ravine, by focusing only on the 27 outs that could save their season rather than getting overwhelmed by the big picture. All baseball teams like to say they don’t look too far ahead, and instead prefer to take things day-to-day, but Mendoza’s Mets have executed that mindset better than most this season.

The Mets are attempting to become the ninth team in LCS history (AL or NL) to come back from a 3-1 hole. For motivation, they’ll be reminding themselves that they’re 2-0 in elimination games this year. 

“We’ve had success focusing on the process for 4-5 months now, and it’s not the time to change it,” Brandon Nimmo said. “We’re just trying to beat on that dam until it finally breaks, and it broke tonight.”

On The Temptations’ official website, the Motown legends bill their story as “an epic journey of courage, struggle, triumphs, setbacks, and ultimately, international superstardom.” 

Sounds a lot like the 2024 Mets.

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.

[Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily.]

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NEW YORK — Friday evening at Citi Field began with The Temptations singing their 1965 hit single “My Girl” in an ode to Francisco Lindor’s walk-up song. Lindor, while warming up on the field, smiled and sang along to the lyrics. Pete Alonso, stretching before what could be his final home game as a Met, joined in, too, and pretty soon the crowd — understandably tense before an elimination game — relaxed a little. Watching the jovial scene unfold in Queens, it was hard to tell that the Mets were backed into a corner. 

If they seemed loose and carefree mere minutes before southpaw David Peterson threw the first pitch of the game, it was because that’s how they showed up to Citi Field ahead of Game 5 of the National League Championship Series. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza walked into the hitters’ meeting and everyone was smiling. Hours before their most important game of the year — yes, another one of those — New York’s happy-go-lucky attitude foreshadowed the pain they would inflict on the Dodgers.

“That’s who we are,” Mendoza said. “There’s no tomorrow for us. But we’ve been in this situation before. So, nothing new.”

After Peterson stranded Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani on second and third base in the first inning — lifting the crowd’s energy from unease to optimism — Alonso followed by lifting a three-run blast off Jack Flaherty in the bottom of the frame. The Polar Bear’s fourth home run of October was a harbinger of the offensive outburst that was to come. The Mets tallied 14 hits, the second-most in postseason franchise history, in their 12-6 win over the Dodgers in Game 5. 

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The onslaught was a product of sticking to the plan, capitalizing on Flaherty’s drop in velocity and refusing to chase outside the zone. The Mets wound up tagging Flaherty for eight runs in just three innings. Besides Alonso’s long ball, they drew key walks, enjoyed timely hitting, and played small ball to overwhelm Los Angeles’ pitching staff. Starling Marte went 4-for-5 with three RBIs, Lindor collected a stand-up RBI triple, Jesse Winker reached base in four of his five plate appearances and catcher Francisco Alvarez went 3-for-4, too. On top of all the runs produced, the Mets didn’t strike out once.

It was the kind of complete effort the Mets needed to remind themselves of their ceiling. 

“The quality of at-bats that we had, the intensity that we needed every inning, we understood that,” Lindor said. “And we had to give everything that we had, and that’s what we did.”

As the Dodgers threatened to put an end to this improbable run, the Mets leaned on the experience and the results that got them to this point. Their slugging first baseman, throughout these past few victorious weeks, has been right in the middle of it. Of Alonso’s five career postseason homers, four have given the Mets the lead — including three in the past two weeks alone. Not bad for one of baseball’s most powerful hitters just weeks away from entering free agency. 

Like Mookie Betts said on Wednesday, the Mets didn’t become one of the final four teams standing because of luck. They also didn’t reach this point because of a McDonald’s mascot or a hit Latin pop song. On Friday, the Mets reminded everyone why they’re only two wins away from advancing to the World Series: When they’re at their best, they can beat anyone. 

“We’ll be ready. We love opportunities,” Alonso said. “This is what we want to continue to play for. Today was all about, figure it out, get to Game 6. And we have that opportunity, and it’s going to be the same mentality: figure it out, get to 7. That’s what it is. Survive the day. And we did. And we’re really, really excited for the opportunity coming up.”

In a season overloaded with surprises, the Mets have the opportunity to pull off their greatest upset yet. They forced a flight back to Los Angeles for Game 6, which will take place on Sunday night at Chavez Ravine, by focusing only on the 27 outs that could save their season rather than getting overwhelmed by the big picture. All baseball teams like to say they don’t look too far ahead, and instead prefer to take things day-to-day, but Mendoza’s Mets have executed that mindset better than most this season.

The Mets are attempting to become the ninth team in LCS history (AL or NL) to come back from a 3-1 hole. For motivation, they’ll be reminding themselves that they’re 2-0 in elimination games this year. 

“We’ve had success focusing on the process for 4-5 months now, and it’s not the time to change it,” Brandon Nimmo said. “We’re just trying to beat on that dam until it finally breaks, and it broke tonight.”

On The Temptations’ official website, the Motown legends bill their story as “an epic journey of courage, struggle, triumphs, setbacks, and ultimately, international superstardom.” 

Sounds a lot like the 2024 Mets.

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.

[Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily.]

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NEW YORK — The Mets have magic. The Dodgers have dominance. 

The Mets have MVP candidates. The Dodgers have MVPs. 

The Mets have OMG. The Dodgers are OMG.

The chasm between them couldn’t have been clearer Thursday night, as the Dodgers won 10-2 and took a commanding 3-1 lead in the National League Championship Series. Los Angeles has won all three of its games by at least eight runs. Game 4 was the most revealing, as Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts turned an energized Citi Field into a library by combining for two homers, five hits, five RBIs, three walks and seven runs. 

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“It’s been fun being able to see him perform really well, obviously being in the situation where I’m on base,” Ohtani said of Betts. “So, he looks really good and locked in. My job at that point is to make sure that I score on anything that Mookie really hits.”

Ohtani and Betts have made it seem inevitable that, pretty soon, all the purple Grimaces in the tri-state area will be sent into a winter hibernation. Ohtani sucked the air out of the stadium before fans had even settled into their seats — demolishing a leadoff home run on the second pitch out of the left hand of veteran Jose Quintana and ending the trend that he couldn’t hit with nobody on base. The home run snapped an 0-for-22 stretch for Ohtani without runners on base to begin the postseason. With the Mets apparently choosing to avoid any more damage from the Japanese phenom, Ohtani reached base via a walk in three of his next four plate appearances. 

“Freddie [Freeman] talked to me to make sure that I joined the party earlier than later,” Ohtani said. “So I was able to do that this time in my first at-bat.”

Betts added: “It’s going to be tough to walk him all the time.”

Yeah, no kidding, particularly when the guy hitting behind him is this locked in. Betts, after beginning the postseason hitless in his first nine at-bats, has returned to superstardom. He went 4-for-6, collected a playoff-career-high four RBIs and crushed a towering two-run shot to left field in the sixth — his third homer this postseason — that completely took the Mets out of the game. Betts’ biggest hits of the night came immediately after the Mets made pitching changes, drawing on his clutch gene to power the Dodgers in Game 4. 

Betts now has seven career playoff homers, and he’s the third Dodgers player with at least four hits and at least four RBIs in a postseason game — joining Chris Taylor and Steve Garvey. 

“It’s just so tough for starting pitchers,” said Freeman, who watched Game 4 from the dugout to rest his sprained ankle. “Right out of the gate, you’re facing Hall of Famers. It’s amazing when they’re swinging the bat as good as they are right now. It’s fun to hit behind them.”

Like Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, or Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, L.A.’s latest legendary tandem was relentless against Mets pitchers in Game 4. Ohtani relied on patience as he drew his walks, and Betts leaned on his timely hitting to force Quintana out of his start with five earned runs in just 3.1 innings. That Ohtani, Betts and the rest of the Dodgers stepped up for 10 runs while Freeman was sidelined on Thursday is a testament to how complete the offense is right now. 

The Dodgers spent more than $1 billion this offseason for this exact reason: overwhelm, exhaust and suffocate the opponent to the point of making any idea of a comeback for the resilient Mets a moot point. The Dodgers have outscored the Mets 30-9 across the first four games in the NLCS. 

“You’ve got to give them credit because that’s a really good lineup and they can do a lot of different things,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “This is a team that controls the strike zone as well as anybody in the league. Not only do they do that, but when they force you in the zone, they can do some damage. And they’ve done that. They did it again today.”

As players and managers like to say, everything is magnified at this time of the year. So it takes another level of patience and confidence to be able to handle the quick turnarounds and additional media responsibilities of the postseason. 

Ohtani, experiencing the playoffs for the first time in his seven-year career in the big leagues, zipped around the clubhouse in a frenzy after the Dodgers’ Game 4 win. Sitting on the chair at his locker, he quickly toweled off his jet black hair, jogged back into the bathroom, and hustled back to his locker to collect his belongings: a backpack that he threw over his shoulder, a hat that he wore backwards, and a pair of headphones that he held in his hand. Then he rushed behind an MLB staff member out of the clubhouse and into the news conference room to talk about his night at the plate and the Dodgers being one win away from the World Series. 

As for Betts, playing in his eighth career postseason, he was operating at a more leisurely pace. As he walked down the Citi Field tunnel on his way to sit in front of countless cameras and reporters, he stopped to hug his family and fist bump a lucky fan who was exiting the stadium. If Betts seemed calm after the game, it was because he spent the rest of his free time swinging in the cages. Freeman joked that if all of that cage work has worked so well for Betts, the first baseman might soon try that approach too. 

“A lot of stuff has clicked and hasn’t worked and some of it has worked,” Betts said of his preparation. “Today it worked. But tomorrow is a new day, and I’ll come work and try and find the same feel.”

Not much was working for the team from Queens. As for why the Mets are backed into a corner, facing the worst-case scenario where they face elimination for the remainder of the series, they failed to capitalize on their chances on Thursday. There was heartbreak in the sixth inning when they loaded the bases with nobody out and didn’t score a single run. Then there was embarrassment in the eighth inning as the Dodgers continued to pile on and the stadium all but emptied with six outs still to go. 

The Dodgers, playoff veterans, did the equivalent of stuffing the new kid at school into a locker. It’s hard to see these Mets getting out of Citi Field with any games left to play.

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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NEW YORK — Walker Buehler lives for October. 

It’s the first thing he said after he helped the Los Angeles Dodgers clinch the division last month. Their late September game against the rival Padres had a playoff feel to it, and after months spent battling through up-and-down results, his return to dominance against San Diego gave Buehler more confidence that he could step up for his club when it needs him the most. 

That time came Wednesday in a pivotal Game 3 of the National League Championship Series, where it was up to Buehler to set the tone against the New York Mets. With the series tied at one game apiece, and the Mets holding home-field advantage, it would take a gutsy outing from Buehler to give Los Angeles’ lineup enough breathing room to do its job.

Not only did Buehler deliver, he put on a show we haven’t seen from the 30-year-old in a few years. 

“It’s so overused, but pressure is a privilege,” Buehler said. “Talking about how many starts I’ve gotten to make, that’s the privilege part of it, right? I’ve gotten to do this a lot of times, and these games certainly get me excited, but they don’t overwhelm me like they used to when I was young my first couple of [playoff] starts. I’m just fortunate to be a part of this organization and a part of this team, specifically.”

Buehler allowed just three hits and struck out six across four scoreless frames in the Dodgers’ 8-0 rout over the Mets at Citi Field. He finished his outing by retiring seven straight batters, but no moment encapsulated his spunky performance better than his drama-fueled second-inning matchup against Francisco Lindor. 

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With two outs and the bases loaded, the Mets were threatening to erase Los Angeles’ 2-0 lead when their MVP shortstop dug into the box. But Buehler had a game plan to follow, and he wasn’t going to let New York’s best hitter get in the way of executing it. He peppered his best offspeed pitch of the night, a 78 mph knuckle curveball, in between his 95 mph heater enough times that Lindor got off balance. Finally, with the count full and 43,883 fans on their feet, Buehler got Lindor to swing and miss at yet another curveball to end the inning and the threat. He walked off the mound screaming into the frigid October air, daring the Mets to even attempt to hit him. 

“For me, personally, it’s huge,” Buehler said of striking out Lindor. “I think the last time I really made a pitch like that, in the playoffs, that kind of got it through was 2020 [NLCS] against Atlanta.”

Buehler said he channeled “the fear of pitching the way I pitched all year” in order to get out of the bases-loaded jam. He struggled to find his new identity during his return from Tommy John surgery this season, posting a 5.84 ERA across his first eight starts of 2024 before landing on the injured list with hip inflammation in June. Once he started trusting his mechanics again, Buehler said throwing a big pitch in a big spot was one of the final items on his checklist that would prove to him that he was back in pre-surgery form. 

Buehler squandered that opportunity in Game 3 of the NLDS versus the Padres, who tagged him for six runs in the second inning of a Dodgers defeat. Facing another stress-filled second inning Wednesday, after surrendering two walks and an infield single to load the bases, Buehler prevailed with back-to-back strikeouts — capped by the curve to Lindor.

“I don’t think anyone over there would’ve expected Walker to throw that pitch in that situation,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “That’s why Walker did it.”

As much as the Dodgers needed the win, this was the game the Mets perhaps had to take. With Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Jack Flaherty coming up in Games 4 and 5, Wednesday was New York’s best opportunity to place Los Angeles at a disadvantage. Jose Quintana is toeing the hill for the Mets on Thursday, so they were hoping to charge ahead to a 3-1 series lead by the time Friday’s Game 5 rolled around. But Buehler had other plans.

Expertly relying on his offspeed pitches to keep Mets hitters off balance, Buehler had registered more swings-and-misses (11) by the end of the second inning than he had in his five innings against the Padres last week (8). According to Elias Sports Bureau, Buehler’s 18 total swings-and-misses were his most since 2021, and the most through the first four innings of a postseason game by any pitcher since Kyle Lohse in 2003. The Dodgers would’ve loved for the right-hander to pitch beyond the fourth inning given the way he was dealing. But since Buehler averaged more than 20 pitchers per inning, he only faced the Mets twice through the order. 

That wasn’t a problem for Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who prepared for a situation like Game 3 — where several innings had to be covered by his high-leverage relief arms. After Buehler’s night ended somewhat early, Michael Kopech, Ryan Brasier, and Blake Treinen combined to throw three shutout innings and register four strikeouts while allowing just one hit from the ‘pen. Catcher Will Smith said Brasier’s double-play ball to Jose Iglesias that ended the sixth inning completely eradicated any chance for the Mets to build momentum.

He was right. Dodgers bats continued to pile on — including home runs from Shohei Ohtani, Kiké Hernández and Muncy — while the Mets’ slim hopes for a comeback, no matter how resilient they’ve been this postseason, fully slipped away. But the belief that New York could get a series lead was already on its way out the door with every inning Buehler put up a zero.

“In my career here as a Dodger, Walker’s probably been one of the most big-time playoff pitchers that I’ve seen,” Treinen said. “I think for him, coming back from the surgery, there’s been a lot of learning on the fly. And what he’s been able to do recently, the results haven’t always matched how well he’s pitched. Today was nice to see the results match the hard work he’s putting in.”

Buehler’s 17 playoff starts rank second to only Clayton Kershaw in Dodgers franchise history. Prior to undergoing a second UCL reconstruction in August 2022, he carried a phenomenal 2.94 career ERA in October. Though that mark took a hit in the NLDS, Buehler was able to rebound with three clean frames versus the Padres — after they initially rocked him — to jumpstart the Dodgers’ record-tying 33 scoreless innings in the postseason. 

On Wednesday, as he traversed the long and winding road that has forced the two-time All-Star to reinvent himself, Buehler reminded baseball of one thing as he led the Dodgers to an enormous win: He is still Walker Buehler.

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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Link to Original Article - on Fox Sports