Blame Aaron Judge, Aaron Boone for Brutal World Series L to Freddie Freeman, Dodgers

Freddie Freeman delivered one of the biggest hits in Los Angeles Dodgers history with a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the 10th inning to kick off the 2024 World Series dramatically.

But the New York Yankees’ failures cast an equally large shadow.

Between another forgettable playoff performance from AL MVP favorite Aaron Judge and a brutal late-game decision from manager Aaron Boone, the story for the Yankees was a squandered opportunity to steal Game 1 at Dodger Stadium.

First things first, though, let’s give Freeman his props.

The 35-year-old suffered a severe ankle sprain on Sept. 26, and he has been visibly hobbled all postseason, spending three of the Dodgers’ first 11 playoff games watching from the bench.

He was 7-for-32 with zero extra-base hits and only one RBI in the NLDS and NLCS, but with a few extra days to rest before the start of the World Series, he looked to be moving significantly better when he ran out to greet his teammates during pregame introductions.

A few hours later, he hit the biggest home run of his life.

The game-winning blast came on the first pitch he saw from Nestor Cortes, who had absolutely no business being in the game to begin with. That fatal decision falls squarely on the shoulders of Aaron Boone.

Cortes was inactive during the ALDS and ALCS, and for the final few weeks of the regular season after suffering a flexor strain on Sept. 18. After weighing the risk of further damaging his elbow and potentially needing Tommy John surgery, he decided to rush back for the Fall Classic.

“We have weighed in the consequences this can lead up to, but if I have a ring and then a year off of baseball, then so be it,” Cortes told reporters.

Surely he would be eased back into action with a clean inning and a low-leverage situation, right?

With runners on first and second and one out in the bottom of the 10th, the Yankees had Cortes and fellow lefty Tim Hill (7 G, 1.59 ERA, 5.2 IP in playoffs) warming up in the bullpen, and Shohei Ohtani stepping into the batter’s box.

Boone called for Cortes, and while he got Ohtani to fly out to left field on a spectacular play by Alex Verdugo before Mookie Betts was intentionally walked, his return to the mound ended in disaster.

It’s a decision that will be questioned at length over the next 24 hours.

In fact, the second-guessing started almost immediately on Friday evening, and quickly made its way across the sports landscape.

The dramatic narrative shift that came with one swing of the bat stole the spotlight from a handful of Yankees players, including Giancarlo Stanton who continued his red-hot postseason with a two-run home run in the sixth inning that gave the Yankees a 2-1 lead.

The Dodgers tied it in the eighth on a sac fly from Betts, but the Yankees then took the lead again in the top of the 10th inning when Jazz Chisholm Jr. singled, stole second, stole third and then scored on a fielder’s choice when Anthony Volpe hit a groundball up the middle.

That all came after ace Gerrit Cole delivered six innings of four-hit, one-run ball, adding to his robust resume as one of the best postseason pitchers of this generation.

Noticeably absent from that rundown of potential Yankees heroes: Aaron Judge

After striking out three times against Dodgers starter Jack Flaherty, Judge had a golden opportunity to erase another forgettable night and shift all the talk of his postseason struggles once and for all when he stepped to the plate with runners on first and second and two outs in the top of the ninth.

He took two sliders from Blake Treinen for strikes to fall behind 0-2, and three pitches later, he hit a harmless pop-up to shortstop for the third out of the inning.

The same superstar who hit an absurd .336/.509/.711 over 177 plate appearances with runners in scoring position during the regular season is now 0-for-8 with four strikeouts in those clutch spots this postseason.

It’s only one game in a best-of-seven series, but the Yankees seem to have dug themselves a major hole from a momentum standpoint, and the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of their manager and the face of the franchise.

If Game 1 is any indication, one of the most hyped World Series matchups in recent memory is not only going to live up to expectations but exceed them in spectacular fashion.