The Yankees must have been feeling their oats entering this weekend’s three-game set against their 2024 World Series conquerors. After sweeping the Angels, they got a day off to prepare to take on the Dodgers, then fired a strong opening volley out of the gate with four home runs in the first three innings. But in a scene semi-reminiscent of last year’s fifth game of the Fall Classic, LA hung around and stayed close—then pounced. Led by a pair of homers from Shohei Ohtani, the Dodgers knocked out Max Fried with four runs in the sixth, then tacked on two more insurance runs in the seventh to walk out of Chavez Ravine with an 8-5 win.
First, let’s discuss those opening salvos. The Bombers did not need to wait long for their captain to put his stamp on this series. Two batters into the game, Aaron Judge waited on a 1-1 fastball from Tony Gonsolin and obliterated it 446 feet to dead center. Andy Pages was merely a spectator for Judge’s 19th home run of the season.
But as one MVP went, so went another in the bottom of the first. Ohtani measured up Max Fried’s first pitch of the evening and clobbered it to left center for his league-leading 21st long ball. For the first time in MLB history, the two MVPs from the previous season homered in the same inning. How about that for a first-inning display?
Well, the fireworks show continued into the second. Austin Wells ambushed Gonsolin to lead off the frame with a heat-seeking liner into the first row of seats in right field. His ninth homer of the year reestablished the Bomber lead. Then, once an Oswald Peraza walk brought the top of the order back to the dish, Trent Grisham continued the high-flying fun by pulling a sinker down the line into the Dodger bullpen. Lucky number 13 for Trent—viewed through home plate umpire Jeremie Rehak’s vantage point—made it 4-1 Yankees.
Los Angeles quickly scratched across a second run in reply thanks in part to a miscue from Fried. Tommy Edman doubled to left with one out, then took a generous lead off second base. Fried got his feet tangled in his attempt to make a pickoff throw to second, and Rehak called a balk. Edman would promptly score on a ground ball to third by Kiké Hernández to cut the lead to 4-2. But as the score constantly changed early in the game, it would quickly shift yet again.
The Yankees collected their second leadoff homer in as many frames thanks to Paul Goldschmidt, whose fly to right carried past Teoscar Hernández over the wall for a 5-2 lead. Then in the home half, Judge laid out to rob Teo of a double in the right-center gap. The road side had all the momentum in this one to start, but it was easy to forget just how early it was.
Gonsolin rebounded to retire ten straight Yankees, including all three batters he faced in the fourth, fifth, and sixth. He exited after six innings trailing by three runs—but those zeroes he put on the board would be critical as the Dodger offense roared back to life.
Continuing the theme of leadoff homeruns, Ohtani came up to the plate to kick off the bottom of the sixth and got a pitch to drive on 3-1. He skied a middle-up fastball from Fried high into the California night, and it had the distance to clear the wall for his second home run of the contest—and his 22nd overall.
The Dodgers would smash three more hits in succession off Fried following Ohtani’s second home run, capped off by an RBI double from Fall Classic hero Freddie Freeman to close the Yankee lead to one and knock Fried out of the game. Two runners remained in scoring position as Jonathan Loáisiga took over with nobody out, and the first would score on a game-tying single from Pages past a drawn-in infield, which tied the game at 5.
After Freeman got caught in a pickle and forced out between third and home, Aaron Boone intentionally walked pinch-hitter Max Muncy with first base open and once again went to his bullpen. Tim Hill entered to face the left-handed Michael Conforto with the bases loaded. Hill tried to jam Conforto inside, but continually missed his spots, and walked Conforto to give the Dodgers their first lead of the night.
Hill managed to rebound from that dud by getting Miguel Rojas to ground into an inning-ending 3-2-3 double play, but the damage was done. The Dodgers’ ambush of Fried, in which the first four batters of the inning collected hits, resulted in four runs and a 6-5 lead. Give Gonsolin credit; he finally got his splitter working in the fourth and was a brand new pitcher from that point forward.
Judge tried to spark a counter-counterattack with a double in the seventh off lefty Jack Dreyer. But when Cody Bellinger flew out for the second out, Dave Roberts declined to let Dreyer face Goldschmidt, who entered action hitting .542 against southpaws. Instead, he tapped righty Ben Casparius, who retired Goldschmidt on a grounder to short and preserved the one-run advantage.
That advantage quickly swelled to the three-run margin the Yankees once enjoyed. Yerry De Los Santos got the call to face the meat of the Dodger order and quickly allowed a two-out rally to escalate. Will Smith blooped a single, after which Freeman continued his torment of New York with a double to left. Both runners scored on an Andy Pages single; Freeman slid under Wells’ tag on a play at the plate, and the call was upheld after replay review.
The Yankees got one last major chance to climb back into this game, bringing the tying run to the dish in the top of the eighth. But Tanner Scott was able to make quick work of pinch-hitter DJ LeMahieu, and Alex Vesia worked around a leadoff single from Grisham in the ninth to send the Yankees to bed. Following those four home runs in the first three innings, the Yankees were goose-egged the rest of the way. Six unanswered tallies for the Dodgers spelled defeat for New York.
The Bombers ran out of ammo in this first tilt with the defending champs, but will look to reload tomorrow. Surging rookie Will Warren will get his toughest test yet, with swingman Landon Knack opposing him. FOX will carry the middle game of this series, with first pitch coming at a more East Coast-friendly start time of 7:15 PM.