The move to Yankee Stadium for Game 3 of the 2024 World Series isn’t slowing down the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Freddie Freeman got LA going by homering for the third straight game.
How did the Dodgers push the Yankees to the brink of elimination, and does the home team have hope in Game 4? We cover everything from updates and analysis during games to takeaways after the final pitch to what’s next for each team.
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Takeaways
Los Angeles Dodgers 4, New York Yankees 2
Cheaters: The Yankees starters should be favored in this series. The Dodgers absolutely destroyed it. Walker Buehler pitched five scoreless innings in Game 3 on Monday night — after Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed just one run in 6⅓ innings in Game 2, Jack Flaherty allowed two runs in 5⅓ innings in Game 1. The trio combined for a 1.62 ERA. Fewest by a team’s top three starters in a World Series since Cleveland in 2016.
Of the three, Buehler may be the most uncertain. He returned midway through the year from second Tommy John surgery, struggled to a 5.38 ERA in 16 regular-season starts, and appeared to have lost his extreme fastball.
But he found an effective curveball against the New York Mets in the National League Championship Series and finally got his fastball going on Monday night. The Dodgers are now one win away from their first championship in four years and their first full-season title since 1988. At the most important point, the starters have gone from the Dodgers’ biggest uncertainty to their biggest strength. Their biggest concern is the overall health of first baseman and No. 3 hitter Freddie Freeman, who no longer appears to be together. — Alton Gonzalez
Yankees: The Yankees are facing a 3-0 series deficit as their offense led by their presumptive American League MVP is missing. On Monday, New York produced four hits, five walks and boos from the home crowd. Giancarlo Stanton went 2-for-4; The rest of the team finished 3-for-27. Aaron Judge went 0-for-3 with a strikeout and a walk, extending his streak to 1-for-12 with seven strikeouts. Stanton’s double in the fourth inning Monday was New York’s only extra-base hit. The Yankees went 1-for-4 with runners in scoring position and left eight runners on base. Their rallies ended with a questionable sendoff (Stanton was thrown out at home in the fourth inning) and a questionable strikeout three call (Kleiber Torres took a pitch above the strike zone with two runners on in the seventh inning). This much is certain: The Yankees, who have been able to take seven runs in the series, have another quiet night to get swept. — Jorge Castillo
The big question for Game 4: Will it really be a sweep? Even though oddsmakers favored the Dodgers in the series, it was by a small margin, and prognosticators saw it as close to a coin flip. Through three games, the Dodgers have completely shut down Yankees hitters, making the crowning loss over Los Angeles feel inevitable.
Entering the series, MLB teams had 3-0 series leads 40 times. Thirty-one of them ended in sweeps. The Yankees can only hope that Lewis Gill will play and pitch better than Carlos Roden and Clark Schmidt did in Games 2 and 3. Even then, considering how New York’s offense has performed this series, there’s a chance Los Angeles will go with an all-bullpen. Tuesday’s game doesn’t look so lopsided.
2004 Boston Red Sox — Only baseball team to trail 3-0 in seven series against Yankees. New York needs a miracle at this point. The way the Yankees are playing, it’s hard to imagine what that would look like. –Jeff Basson
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