By admin 
NEW YORK— The Yankees had such a commanding lead in the top of the fifth inning on Wednesday night that reporters in the Yankee Stadium press box were finalizing travel plans back to Los Angeles for Game 6.
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The Yankees led 5-0. Ace Gerrit Cole got through four no-hit innings and mowed down the Dodgers. Aaron Judge, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Giancarlo Stanton had all homered. Fans in the Bronx were as loud as they have been all postseason and began to taste a second straight win to keep the season alive.
Then disaster struck.
What had the potential to be the best start of Cole’s career was suddenly defined by one play, one of three defensive blunders by the Yankees that allowed the Dodgers to fight back.
As Hall of Famer John Smoltz said in the FOX broadcast booth, it was one of the most epic one-inning meltdowns in World Series history. It led to a 7-6 loss and the end of the Yankees’ season.
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Cole gave up his first hit to start the frame, a single to right-center to center fielder Kiké Hernández.
Okay, nothing serious. The bottom of the order was next. No problem for Cole, right?
He jumped ahead of shortstop Tommy Edman and got the shortstop to poke a soft line drive into shallow center field.
The judge attacked and got punched. Then he inexplicably dropped it.
The ball hit the tip of the web of his glove and fell to the grass. He tried to grab it and throw it to second base for a force out, but Hernández ran up safely.
It was Judge’s first mistake all year. Considering the superstar slugger made a highlight-reel catch a few innings earlier — hitting the wall in left-center field to rob Freddie Freeman of extra bases — it was a headache.
Still, Yankees fans were calm. Supportive chants of MVP rained from a sellout crowd of nearly 50,000 for Judge as the Yankees retreated to their positions.
From there it got worse.
Catcher Will Smith rolled over on a 2-2 slider by Cole and grounded out the left side. Anthony Volpe moved to right and corralled it, but his only play was to third base. He tried to shoot at Chisholm – who backpedaled to get to the bag – but yanked his throw into the mud, allowing Hernández to slide in safely.
With the bases loaded and no one out, Cole began picking up his teammates. He struck out No. 9 hitter Gavin Lux and superstar Shohei Ohtani on eight pitches, getting the crowd back into the swing of things.
Mookie Betts was next and after a 1-0 slider, the outfielder delivered a dribbler straight to Anthony Rizzo at first base.
Remarkably, the Yankees would emerge from that inning unscathed… until Rizzo insisted and didn’t cover Cole first. Betts defeated it without a throw, leaving everyone in the building stunned and confused.
The play was as routine as it gets. It’s the kind of drill you’ll see Cole and the Yankees pitchers working on during the first few days of spring training. It was baffling that Cole couldn’t make a run to first and give Rizzo a chance.
Watching from home, ex-Yankee Matt Carpenter posted on Twitter/X to add some context to the situation.
“He has seen Rizzo himself play from that spot on the field 100 times out of 100,” Carpenter wrote. “He assumed he would do that again. Just a reading error. Funky played a lot of spin and Rizzo had to stay back and play the field. An unfortunate break.”
A costly play on a slow roller down the first base line by Mookie (Betts) in the World Series.
How fitting.
As the Dodgers showed in Game 1 – coming back and winning with a walk-off grand slam – they are as good as it gets when it comes to capitalizing on mistakes.
They didn’t waste any time on Wednesday night.
Freeman followed with a two-run single, adding a pair of RBI to his World Series MVP resume. That set the stage for a tying double to the warning track in left center by Teoscar Hernández.
Five runs had been scored in the inning and all five were unearned.
A total catastrophe with what was at stake.
The Yankees jumped back in front on a sacrifice fly by Stanton in the next frame. They took that 6-5 lead into the top of the eighth and needed six outs to survive their meltdown and force a Game 6.
But the Dodgers again took advantage of the Yankees’ inability to execute.
Tommy Kahnle came in to start the top of the eighth inning against the bottom of the Dodgers order, with closer Luke Weaver looming, and he promptly loaded the bases. Kahnle served up a pair of singles for Hernández and Edman, walking Smith. Boone pulled the plug and called up Weaver, but there was only so much the poet could do.
Lux and Betts both scored runs with sacrifice flies, tying the game and taking the lead.
The Yankees failed to score in the final two frames and had to watch the Dodgers empty out of the third base dugout in a frenzy as Alex Verdugo hit a strike to end the game and celebrate a World Series title on their home field.
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Max Goodman can be reached at [email protected].