NEW YORK — The roller-coaster ride that was Game 5 was the only way this iconic World Series between two baseball titans should end. After the Yankees took the lead early on an Aaron Judge home run and kept piling on for a five-run advantage, New York got in its own way with too many defensive mistakes and allowed the Dodgers to scratch and claw their way back into the game.
After the Yankees retook the lead late, the Dodgers rallied again and claimed their eighth World Series title in franchise history with a wild 7-6 win Wednesday night in the Bronx.
Here are our top takeaways from MLB's 2024 finale.
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1. After Flaherty falters early, even a well-rested Dodgers bullpen had to get creative late
The Dodgers essentially punted the end of Game 4, a matchup that was within a run after five innings, choosing to save the bullpen pieces they trust the most to be ready behind Jack Flaherty in Game 5.
One night later, in a matchup that was within a run after six innings, they had used all of those fresh high-leverage arms.
The plan went awry when they had to start deploying them in the second inning. What unfolded was far from the blueprint, as Flaherty recorded just four outs while allowing four hits, four runs and a walk. He made it just one time through the order before being pulled. It was basically a replica of the previous series for Flaherty, who looked like a completely different guy on extra rest in the opening game of the NLCS and World Series (1.46 ERA, 12 K, 3 BB between the two starts) than on regular rest the second time against NLCS and World Series opponents in Game 5s (24.92 ERA, 5 BB, 1 K).
In this one, with the World Series up for grabs, the Dodgers couldn't afford to let him wear it the way they did last series, so Anthony Banda entered in the second. The parade of arms kept the Dodgers within striking distance, buying enough time for the game-tying five-run explosion that arrived behind a calamitous medley of Yankees miscues in the fifth.
But a predicament would unfold, with the Dodgers having deployed all their top relievers. After Blake Treinen threw a clean seventh, they had no fresh arms left. Walker Buehler, who had already trotted out to the bullpen, began warming. Then it was Daniel Hudson, who threw 20 pitches in Game 4, one of which had left the yard. Every other available option for the Dodgers had thrown more than 40 pitches the night before.
Roberts decided to keep Treinen in for the eighth. Disaster appeared close when Aaron Judge delivered a one-out double. Exhaustion seemed to be setting in when Jazz Chisholm Jr. drew a walk. But Treinen buckled down, retiring the next two hitters. He recorded seven outs in the performance, marking the first time in more than six years that he had gone more than two innings. With the bullpen mostly emptied, Dave Roberts turned to Buehler in the ninth. And the October star delivered the team a championship. — Rowan Kavner
2. Cole's dominance turned into disaster
Gerrit Cole was untouchable the first four innings against L.A., boasting a sharper fastball and better command of his secondary pitches than he did in Game 1. At the same time, the Yankees offense gave him five runs of support, and he was pitching efficiently, too. The veteran right-hander hadn't allowed a hit through the first 14 batters he faced. Things were going better than the Yankees could have hoped … until the nightmare that was the fifth inning.
The Yankees committed three game-altering mistakes on defense in the fifth, but after Judge dropped a routine fly ball and Anthony Volpe made a fielding error at short, no mental gaffe was worse than Cole's failure to cover first base on a Mookie Betts ground ball. All Cole had to do was sprint to first base so that Anthony Rizzo could toss him the ball, and the Yankees would've escaped a no-out, bases-loaded jam. But Cole just pointed to Rizzo, expecting the first baseman to make the unassisted out. The Dodgers came all the way back from their 5-0 deficit to tie the game in the fifth following Cole's inning of horrors. All five runs were unearned.
So it took a lot of guts and grit for Cole to come back out for the sixth and the seventh to completely empty the tank against the Dodgers. He pitched a clean sixth inning, and then retired Shohei Ohtani and Betts in the seventh before walking Freddie Freeman for his final batter. Cole's season-high 108-pitch outing would've been so much sweeter without his one mistake of failing to cover first. The crowd still gave him a standing ovation as he walked off the mound in the seventh. He responded with a small salute. — Deesha Thosar
3. Superteam Dodgers can also win small
A catastrophic inning gave the Dodgers' offense a chance. The Yankees had struggled with the little things all series. The Dodgers, as their go-ahead inning demonstrated late, had not.
Yankees relievers had gotten the better of the Dodger offense all series, forcing them to chase more than usual and into uncharacteristic at-bats. That changed in the eighth inning of Game 5, when the Dodgers put the first three runners on against Tommy Kahnle with two walks and a single. More productive at-bats put them ahead when the Yankees turned to Luke Weaver. Gavin Lux hit a sac fly. Shohei Ohtani reached on a catcher's interference. Mookie Betts delivered another sac fly, and the Dodgers had their first lead of the night, moving them six outs away. — Kavner
4. Judge's breakout too little, too late
Facing the same pressure as Game 4 to get out to an early lead, Judge finally provided the big swing the Yankees were waiting for from their captain with a huge two-run home run in the first inning — on the first pitch — against Jack Flaherty. It was Judge's third home run of this postseason, and his first since Game 3 of the ALCS in Cleveland. The entire Yankees dugout seemed to relax after Judge's first World Series home run, because that's who this team is at its heart. When Judge is cashing in, the rest of the supporting cast typically follows his lead.
While Judge bolstered his postseason numbers in Games 4 and 5 of the World Series, his help arrived too late to save the Yankees' season. The way that this year's team was built, the Yankees needed Judge to produce throughout the Series if they're going to win the franchise's first title since 2009. Instead, his 1-for-12, seven-strikeout output through the first three games of the Fall Classic put the Yankees in a hole they couldn't climb out of. The narrative of his postseason struggles, and how it seems to take Judge at least a dozen at-bats to warm up, will follow him into his next October. — Thosar
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.
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
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