The New York Yankees lost again on Monday night, their third straight in the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers. New York has few answers for the Los Angeles pitching staff, or Freddie Freeman for that matter. Freeman has homered in all three games to start the 2024 Fall Classic.
Only one team has come back from an 0-3 deficit to win a playoff series, and that is the 2004 Boston Red Sox. Boston famously defeated New York that season, but that motivational tactic won't do the Yankees any good. Heck, Dave Roberts was on that Red Sox team. New York will not be able to catch his Dodgers by surprise.
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The only chance the Yankees have is a boring answer – Boone and Co. must improve on a granular level.
“We're trying to get a game tomorrow, OK?” Boone said postgame. “That's where our focus lies. Hopefully we can go be this amazing story and shock the world. But right now, it's about trying to get a lead, trying to grab a game, and force another one, and then on from there. But we've got to grab one first.”
That's not an answer that'll quell the concerns of Yankees fans, but it's the appropriate one. There is no magic pill, or in this case piece of bulletin-board material, that will fix a situation New York put themselves in.
Yankees outfielder Alex Verdugo kept his team's deficit in perspective.
“No one said this was going to be easy,” Verdugo said. “We understood what was expected from us and how hard this was going to be. We’ve just got to stick together, block out that noise. I know how good this team is, and if that team wins three in a row, why can’t we win three in a row?”
Winning three games in a row does not sound like an insurmountable task. Yet, the magnitude of the World Series adds an extra layer of pressure the Yankees haven't dealt with since 2009. It doesn't help that Aaron Judge is struggling, Juan Soto's Yankees career could be nearing its conclusion and the Yankees are facing one of the most talented teams ever assembled in the free agency era.
