New York

Yankees

Judge’s swing looks broken. John Smoltz correctly pointed out on the FOX broadcast that Judge’s front hip is flying open too early, which is preventing him from driving the ball. That’s if he were to make contact. Judge is now 6-for-40 with 19 strikeouts in the playoffs. That’s a 47 percent strikeout percentage, which is nearly twice as high as the 24 percent strikeout percentage he had during the regular season. He’s 1-for-9 with six strikeouts already in the World Series. The Yankees absolutely need Judge to break out of this funk if they’re going to get back in the series after falling behind 2-0, but he doesn’t look close to doing that at the moment.

Soto crushed his fourth home run of the playoffs. It was a solo shot off Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the third inning that left his bat at 105.4 mph exit velocity and traveled 386 feet. Soto also started the Yankees rally in the ninth inning with a single off Dodgers closer Blake Treinen. He’s hitting .350 with a 1.160 OPS and nine RBI in the playoffs. Soto will become a free agent shortly after the World Series and is poised to sign the largest contract for a position player in baseball history.

Rodon gave up six hits, walked none and struck out three. Rodon actually had his good fastball on Saturday as he hit 98 mph multiple times, but it wasn’t enough against the strong Dodgers offense. Los Angeles took the lead on a solo home run by Tommy Edman in the second inning and scored three more runs on a two-run homer by Teoscar Hernandez and a solo shot by Freddie Freeman in the third inning. Rodon has struggled to keep the ball in the ballpark down the stretch. He’s now allowed at least one home run in eight of his last 10 starts including the playoffs. It was an easy call for the Yankees to remove him in the fourth inning with an off day Sunday before Game 3. Rodon would only pitch again if the series goes six games.

Gil allowed two runs in four innings and threw 79 pitches in a no-decision in Game 4 of the ALCS last week. It was his only appearance of the playoffs so far. The Yankees will likely come back with their ace Gerrit Cole in Game 5 of the World Series if necessary.

The Yankees are sticking with the same lineup from Game 1: 2B Gleyber Torres, RF Juan Soto, CF Aaron Judge, DH Giancarlo Stanton, 3B Jazz Chisholm Jr., 1B Rizzo, SS Anthony Volpe, C Austin Wells and LF Alex Verdugo. Carlos Rodon is on the mound as the Yankees try to even the series before shifting back to New York for Game 3.

The Rafters went 10-for-10 stealing bases against Cardinals catching prospect Leonardo Bernal, who had actually been 2-for-3 throwing out basestealers in five previous appearances for Glendale. Durbin is hitting .283/.411/.500 in Arizona after coming in at .275/.388/.451 in a 2024 season spent mostly in Triple-A. He’s probably not the future at second base for the Yankees, but he could turn up as a stopgap at some point.

There were no real surprises among the players’ awards picks. Shohei Ohtani won NL Outstanding Player, Tarik Skubal claimed AL Outstanding Pitcher and Chris Sale took home both NL Outstanding Pitcher and NL Comeback Player. Colton Cowser and Jackson Merrill got the Outstanding Rookie awards. Tyler O’Neill, who played in 113 games in the second-best season of his career, was AL Comeback Player.

There is no one hotter on the planet than Giancarlo Stanton right now. The 6-foot-6 slugger golfed a homer on the inner-half of the plate out to left field with an exit velocity over 116 mph off Jack Flaherty to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead. It’s the fourth consecutive game that Stanton has homered in the playoffs, the sixth of the postseason and the 17th of Stanton’s career.

Chisholm Jr. stole second off Anthony Banda in the sixth. He really showed off his wheels in the 10th, as he singled, stole second, stole third and came around to score on an infield single by Anthony Volpe that gave New York a 3-2 lead. It looked like that would be the game-winning run, but the Freddie Freeman and the Dodgers had other plans. Chisholm will look to keep up the good work but on the winning side in Game 2 against the Dodgers on Saturday.

Cole and Jack Flaherty were both excellent in the first game of the series, battling zero-for-zero for the first four frames. Cole finally gave up a run after a triple by Enrique Hernandez — on a play that Juan Soto could have (should have?) made — and a sacrifice fly from Will Smith. Cole looked outstanding, but the Yankees didn’t do enough offensively to make it matter. He’ll likely start Game 5, if necessary, but Game 4 can’t be completely ruled out.