The Yankees fly home with their backs against the wall.
The Dodgers have put their stamp on this World Series taking a 2-0 series lead back to the Bronx putting the Bombers season on the brink. However, despite the deficit, it’s not all doom and gloom in the Yankees clubhouse.
“This series could easily be 2-0 us,” said Giancarlo Stanton on what makes him confident the Yankees can fight back. “So you know that’s what happens when you’re with a extremely good ball club on the other side. Yeah, it could go any way.”
The Yanks have suffered grueling defeats all season long, the most recent example being Game 3 of the ALCS in Cleveland against the Guardians when they entered the ninth with a 5-3 lead where they gave up a game-tying two-run homer to Jhonkensy Noel before David Fry walked them off in the 10th.
The Bombers bounced back to win two straight and advance to the World Series. While the Dodgers are clearly a different level of opponent and winning four out of five games against the star-studded Dodgers will be a tall task, however, the Yankees are nowhere near ready to throw in the towel.
“It’s a tough start, but it ain’t over yet,” said Juan Soto who homered in their Game 2 loss. “We’re really happy to go back home and get the fans going and everyone going and try to start over. The fans are going to bring their energy. It’s not easy to play in front of 40,000 fans against you. It’s not only the team, you’ve got to go against those 45, 50,000 people that are against you”
One of the glaring reasons for the early series deficit is the disappointing performance of superstar Aaron Judge. The six-time All-Star has been a shell of himself in the postseason slashing .150/.280/.325 with just one homer and 19 strikeouts in 11 games.
The Yankees captain believes he and his team can get going before it’s too late in this long series.
“It’s a seven-game series for a reason,” said Judge. “We’ve been here to battle the storm and end up where we want to be. …. [The struggles] definitely eats at you. You want to contribute and help the team, so I gotta keep working. Gotta keep swinging. I can’t sit here and feel bad for myself. Nobody’s feeling bad for me, so you just gotta show up and do the work.”
The saying in baseball is you’re only as good as your next day’s starting pitcher. Clarke Schmidt will get the ball Monday in Game 3 at Yankee Stadium with the Bombers season hanging in the balance.
“I think obviously, we all know how big of a game it is,” said Schmidt. “So just keeping the emotions at bay and trying to treat it, obviously it’s going to be bigger than another game. But just keeping the motions at bay and not trying to do too much. …
“Every game probably must win at this point. But, you know, we’re down two, we know that we got to keep fighting and win the next game.”
