The Yankees didn’t know it yet, but their season might as well have ended the last time they faced the Dodgers.
Almost exactly one year ago, the Bombers were in third place when they visited Los Angeles. However, reinforcements were ready for the trip, as Giancarlo Stanton, Josh Donaldson and Tommy Kahnle were all activated for the three-game weekend series. The Yankees ultimately won the last two matchups against the first-place Dodgers, but they lost something far more important than a game in the middle contest.
That is when Aaron Judge made a spectacular, game-saving catch while colliding with Dodger Stadium’s visiting bullpen gate and the concrete slab that leads to the field. The play left Judge with a torn ligament in his right big toe, and he missed 42 games.
The Yankees’ offense cratered without him.
By the time Judge returned, they were in fifth place. Plagued by numerous other injuries, the Yanks ultimately finished the season in fourth and a mere two games above .500.
Brian Cashman called the year a “disaster.” Hal Steinbrenner deemed it “unacceptable.” Yet Judge said he was excited to build around the foundation in place.
“If we can add a couple more pieces down the road,” he said, “we’re going to be in a good spot.”
That comment feels prescient with another weekend summer series against the Dodgers on-deck.
This time, Los Angeles is the visitor, and the two financial behemoths are in first place. Better yet, the former cross-town rivals are among the best teams in baseball. With two top-two offenses and top-four pitching staffs facing off, the next three game could serve as a World Series preview.
If nothing else, it will be a star-studded affair in the Bronx.
“It’s going to be an amazing atmosphere,” Boone said Thursday. “We’ve gone twice, since I’ve been here, out to LA in the summer, and it’s been really cool going to Dodger Stadium and seeing that matchup and the buzz around it. I would imagine it’s going to be every bit of that and maybe more.
“I would expect it to be a pretty special environment.”
With a must-see series waiting, the Yankees have added the pieces Judge desired.
While Juan Soto suffered a left forearm injury on Thursday — details were not immediately known — he has been the headliner, forming a powerful Big 3 with the red-hot Judge and Stanton, who is enjoying a bounce-back season. But former Dodger Alex Verdugo and Marcus Stroman, who pitched Thursday against the Twins, have also made significant contributions.
“We’re all clicking on all cylinders, and we don’t even have to click on all cylinders,” Stanton, a Los Angeles native, recently said of himself, Judge and Soto. “It doesn’t have to be the same person every night. It’s really just putting pressure on every pitcher we face. Sooner or later, we’re gonna crack ’em.”
The Yankees’ hot start has also been aided by Luis Gil, who has done his best Gerrit Cole impression while the reigning American League Cy Young recovers from elbow inflammation. With a 1.82 ERA, Gil will make his Sunday Night Baseball debut on ESPN after Cody Poteet and Nestor Cortes start the first two games of the series.
The Dodgers have upgraded as well, backing up Brink’s trucks for Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Teoscar Hernández and more over the offseason.
While the two-way Ohtani has only been able to hit this season following elbow surgery, he, leadoff man Mookie Betts and No. 3 hitter Freddie Freeman have formed a top of the order as formidable as the Yankees’ combination of Anthony Volpe, Soto and Judge.
“It’s a lot like what it looks like here,” said Caleb Fegurson, who the Yankees acquired from the Dodgers over the offseason. “Just really good players throughout the whole lineup.
“It’s hard to compare them all because they’re all very, very good hitters, but they all just seem like they’re better in different parts of hitting.”
Ferguson said that Freeman, a fellow lefty, is the hardest out of the Dodgers’ trio for him, but Betts and Ohtani are obviously problems, too.
Ohtani, the 2023 AL MVP, is still putting up typical numbers. Working exclusively as a DH, the former Angel was slashing .322/.390/.598 with 15 home runs, 40 RBI, 14 stolen bases and a 179 OPS+ as of Thursday. All of those numbers led the Dodgers, except for Ohtani’s OBP.
“It’s just so much power and speed,” Boone said. “To watch him run, to watch that kind of stretch and torque that he’s able to create at the plate and obviously generate massive power, is a pretty special combination. And then we haven’t talked about him on the mound yet where he’s a frontline starting pitcher with amazing stuff. So certainly nothing like I’ve ever seen. But I would say the biggest thing that’s jaw-dropping is just the athleticism and the physicality.”
Meanwhile, the Dodgers’ other Japanese sensation is slated to start the series-opener. It will be Yamamoto’s first time facing the Yankees after spurning them as an international free agent over the winter.
At the time, it felt like the Yankees missed out, and some fans expressed frustration when it became known that the Dodgers offered more money. But even though Yamamoto has pitched well, things have worked out for all sides.
“So far, it seems to be,” Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake said. “I think he’s in a good spot in LA, and [not signing him] obviously gave Luis Gil a chance to be up here, so you feel good about that.”
While the Yankees have the best rotation in the American League, the Dodgers’ is no joke either. Following Yamamoto, the top-10 unit will turn to Gavin Stone and Glasnow.
A former Ray, Glasnow has pitched well against the pinstripers throughout his career, but this group is different than the teams he’s faced in the past. This Yankees squad looks capable of winning it all.
Then again, so do the Dodgers, who have lost eight of their 11 World Series battles against the Yankees.
Of course, champions are not crowned in June. There’s still a lot of baseball left to play after this weekend. The Phillies and Orioles, among others, look like legitimate Fall Classic contenders as well.
The Yankees will face both between now and the end of next month. For now, however, their sights are set on LA and the present.
“Everybody on both sides would say the season is still long,” Ferguson said of the World Series possibilities. “There’s still a lot of things that could play out before you get there, so you gotta just focus on winning each day just to even make it to that. That’s obviously the goal in both clubhouses, but you gotta focus on today before you focus on tomorrow or focus on October.”
