Yankees welcome World Series back to Bronx with losing effort as Dodgers threaten sweep

With the concourse cramped, the climate crisp and the fans frenzied, World Series baseball returned to the Bronx for the first time in 15 years on Monday night.
Long before Game 3 began with the Bleacher Creatures’ customary roll call, Yankee Stadium boomed and bellowed while eagerly awaiting the ballpark’s first Fall Classic game since 2009. Derek Jeter, who tossed the ceremonial first pitch, heard deafening cheers. Aaron Judge, stuck in a postseason slump, received MVP chants as lineups were introduced. Even Fat Joe earned some applause after a less-than-stellar pregame performance on the field.
“Hopefully it puts a charge in us,” Aaron Boone said of the homefield advantage prior to the game.
It didn’t take long for the Dodgers to silence the crowd, though, as Freddie Freeman pulled a two-run homer off Clarke Schmidt in the first inning. Los Angeles never looked back, beating the Yankees, 4-2, on their own turf. After losing two games out west, the Yankees are now at risk of being swept in the World Series.
“That’s not really in our heads,” Judge said of the Dodgers possibly breaking out the brooms. “In our heads, it’s win one game. That’s how it starts.”

Freeman, the Dodgers’ Game 1, grand slam hero, had some help taking the air out of the building, as singles from Mookie Betts and Kiké Hernández provided additional runs in the third and sixth innings.
Three of those runs were charged to Schmidt, whose first World Series start only lasted 2.2 innings. The 28-year-old also totaled two hits, four walks, three strikeouts and 68 pitches.
“Stuff was good, just not the command and control,” Boone said of Schmidt. “And against that team especially – like us, if you’re not in the strike zone, they’re not going to go chase you.”
His counterpart dazzled, as Walker Buehler held the Yankees scoreless for five innings. The pinstripers only picked up two hits against the righty as he walked two and fanned five over 76 pitches.
Energy did return to the stands in the fourth when a bunt to Mark Leiter Jr. turned into an out at the plate. Replay review appeared to show Gavin Lux getting his hand under Jose Trevino’s glove, but the original call stood, resulting in a collective roar.
Those roars turned to moans, however, when Yankees third base coach Luis Rojas waved Giancarlo Stanton home on an Anthony Volpe single in the bottom of the frame. Rojas sent Stanton, who doubled for the Bombers’ first hit, before he reached third base and with the ball already in Teoscar Hernández’s glove. The left fielder preceded to gun the slow slugger down.
“We’re going to challenge Teoscar there a little bit, especially when he’s moving to the right,” Boone said. “Credit to him, he had a good throw. I thought G had a pretty good jump and move around third base. Tough when you’re behind a few there, but a perfect throw is able to get him there.”
Added Stanton: “In that situation, two outs, you gotta roll the dice on it.”

The Yankees finally scored in the ninth when Alex Verdugo drilled a two-run homer with two outs, but it was too little, too late for a crowd that had already started to thin out.
The Yanks ultimately went 2-for-6 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on.
“We had opportunities,” Stanton said. “Just didn’t capitalize.”
The Yankees did have a chance to do some additional damage in the seventh, but Gleyber Torres got rung up on a high strike-three call to end a six-pitch at-bat with two on and two out. The Yankees, disappointed with time running out, shook their heads and threw their hands up at Mark Carlson’s call.

While hardly the only one to blame for the loss, Judge’s woes continued, as he went 0-for-3 with one walk and one strikeout. He is now 6-for-43 with 20 strikeouts this postseason.
On Monday, Judge said he “definitely” felt like he’s been letting his team down.
“You want to be getting the hits,” he continued. “You want to be going out there and doing your job. But I’m not doing my job right now, so I gotta pick it up.”
With their captain crumbling and the Dodgers out-hitting the home team, the Yankees are now staring down the barrel of defeat. No team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in the World Series, though the Red Sox famously climbed out of that hole against the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS.
“I don’t think it’s impossible,” said Nestor Cortes, who threw 1.2 scoreless inning in Game 3. “I know the numbers don’t back it up. I know there hasn’t been a World Series team that’s come back from a 3-0 deficit, but we have an opportunity to write our own story.”
The Yankees will attempt the start of that unprecedented story with Luis Gil on the mound for Game 4 on Tuesday. The team did not give much thought to starting Gerrit Cole on short rest given his spring training case of shoulder inflammation, so the rookie will take the mound with the Yankees facing elimination.
The Dodgers, meanwhile, will go with a bullpen game as they look to celebrate a championship in enemy territory. Their next win, should they secure it, would give the National League heavyweights their second World Series win since 2020.
The Yankees’ drought, meanwhile, appears poised to last at least one more year.
“Hopefully we can go be this amazing story and shock the world,” Boone said. “But right now it’s about trying to get a lead, trying to grab a game, and forcing another one, and then on from there.”