The World Series is the pinnacle of baseball. The time when the stars of the game shine the brightest.
This year’s World Series promised us a spectacle; it was Shohei Ohtani against Aaron Judge, a pair of MVP winners who are both on track to win another MVP in 2024 after they finished first and second in home runs. Juan Soto against Mookie Betts, perhaps the two most talented outfielders in baseball for the past decade. Giancarlo Stanton against Freddie Freeman, former rivals and MVP award-winners in the NL East, both showcasing awe-inspiring home runs. Both teams boast talented bullpens, plenty of depth and talented starting rotations.
This World Series should have been one of the most exciting of all time, and in a few ways, it has been. But for the most part, it’s been a disappointment. The Dodgers jumped out to a 3-0 lead in two of the least competitive World Series games in a long time and essentially had the series wrapped up halfway through game three.
Of course, 4-0 and 4-1 series are nothing new to the World Series. During the Yankees three-peat from 1998-2000, they only lost a single game. So perhaps this is fair, a taste of their own medicine.
What has been particularly frustrating as a fan about the 2024 World Series is not the outcome of the games, it has been the competitiveness of them. After a game one full of excitement, and capped off with a historic home run, perhaps the expectations were set too high? Either way, games two, three and four have failed to deliver.
The Yankees did not lead a single minute of games two and three, and while credit should of course be given to the Dodgers pitching, New York felt flat. It was as if the walk-off home run in game one had sucked the energy out of the Yankees, and New York could not find the energy to come back from it. Aaron Judge has been in an all-time slump, with just two hits in the World Series and no extra-base hits. And the rest of the Bronx Bombers have not been pulling their weight.
While the score finished 4-2 in both games two and three, the games did not feel that close. It never felt like the Yankees would win. In game two, New York was down 4-1 until the ninth inning, when they loaded the bases and put a run across, but even with the tying run on base, the Dodgers never felt at risk. Their bullpen was too dominant, their bats too close. Had the Yankees tied or taken the lead, the Dodgers would have walked them off again.
In game three, the Yankees were even less competitive. Sure, they had baserunners in nearly every inning and almost scored early if not for a perfect Teoscar Hernandez throw. But the Dodgers early 4-0 lead felt insurmountable. As a Mariners fan, it reminded me of watching my hometown team play baseball. The Yankees needed their pitching to be perfect, and when it wasn’t they just could not score.
Once again, New York finally broke through in the ninth inning, but it was too little, too late. I wouldn’t be surprised if most casual fans had turned the game off by the time the Yankees finally scored.
Heading into game four the only question was would the Yankees win a game or get swept? Never in World Series history has a team gone up 3-0 and lost twice more. No team has even forced a game six after going down 3-0, and the way the Yankees were playing, there was no reason to think they were.
Of course, game four was when the Yankees decided to score 11 runs and win easily. However, that comes with an extreme caveat, as the Dodgers employed a bullpen game to save their pitcher’s arms for game five. It was as if the Dodgers simply punted the game away. Obviously, bullpen games have been an effective strategy for them in the past, but in the World Series, it made for yet another game that felt uncompetitive. After two games of the Dodgers dominating entirely, game four was the opposite. The Yankees ran away with it and never looked back.
(update with game five)
