Yankees vs LA Dodgers live score, updates, lineups for World ...

26 Oct 2024

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Yankees vs LA Dodgers live score updates lineups for World

Follow here for Pete Caldera's live Yankees-Dodgers analysis from Game 1 of the World Series in Los Angeles.

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Yankees vs. Dodgers history ahead of World Series 2024 matchup

The Yankees and Dodgers are getting ready for a 12th World Series matchup with the 2024 series on tap.

LOS ANGELES – Before the Yankees left New York for the World Series on Wednesday, manager Aaron Boone addressed his team.

Boone wouldn’t divulge anything that was said, but one thing was clear. The time for talk was over; Boone said he wasn’t planning to address the Yanks as a group again.

It’s time for action.

It’s Game 1 of World Series, the first for Boone as a manager, the first for Yankees’ captain Aaron Judge and the first as a Yankee for Gerrit Cole, who opposes the NL Champion Dodgers and right-hander Jack Flaherty.

Moments ago, the Dodgers honored the great Fernando Valenzuela, who passed away this week, by placing a baseball on his No. 34, painted on the mound. There was no ceremonial first pitch.

Actor and Dodgers fan Bryan Cranston was given the honor of announcing - to this revved-up crowd - the late Vin Scully's famous phrase: "It's time for Dodger baseball.''

And here we go...

Escape!

And once more the Yanks find a way out of a jam, this time with Tommy Kahnle entering and retiring Gavin Lux on a grounder to Gleyber Torres - stranding the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position.

It's 2-1 Yanks entering the eighth. Here's the lefty Alex Vesia, the third Dodger reliever tonight, to face 5-6-7 in the Yankee order.

The 'pen relays

It's already time for briefly-a-Dodger Tommy Kahnle to relieve Clay Holmes here in the seventh, with two out, runners at second and third, and the Yanks still leading 2-1.

Holmes nailed Max Muncy with a pitch, but after a sac bunt by Enrique Hernandez, Holmes got Will Smith to pop up with the infield back conceding the tying run.

And that's where we are now.

Stirring in the Yankees' bullpen

There's some stirring in the Yankee 'pen as Cole begins the Dodger seventh at 80 pitches, holding a 2-1 Yankee lead.

Cole went seven innings in the clinching ALDS Game 4 at Kansas City and was followed by Clay Holmes and Luke Weaver...

and now Cole's night is done after yielding a leadoff single to Teoscar Hernandez. Here's Holmes. The battle of the bullpens has been engaged.

Gerrit Cole holds serve

Good stuff from Cole and the infield defense after that leadoff Edman double, preserving the Yanks 2-1 lead into the seventh.

Credit shortstop Anthony Volpe with a nice charging play and quick throw to nail the speedy Ohtani on a soft grounder that moved Edman to third with one out.

With the infield in, Mookie Betts’ hot shot was picked by Jazz Chisholm at third and Cole got Freddie Freeman to fly to the right field track.

Cole out for the sixth

And he'll face 9-1-2 in the Dodger order.

While we're here, Juan Soto - celebrating his 26th birthday today - singled to start the sixth and scored on that Stanton homer....

...and now Tommy Edman leads off with a double.

The Dodgers have three hits, none singles. Sitting next to Hall-of-Famer Jayson Stark, I inquired about how unusual it was to see a team open a World Series with triples as its first two hits.

Instantly, he provided the answer: The '53 Yankees.

Aaron Boone "wrestled'' with decision on batting Stanton cleanup

Before the game, Aaron Boone said he didn’t decide on whether to insert Giancarlo Stanton into the cleanup spot against a right-hander until after Thursday’s team workout.

“That’s one I wrestled with a lot,’’ said Boone, who had usually inserted a lefty hitter into the cleanup spot vs. righties, with Stanton batting fifth.

But that changed in the Yanks’ clinching ALCS Game 5 at Cleveland, when Stanton batted cleanup and smashed a game-tying two-run homer in the sixth.

“We’ll see how the series evolves,’’ Boone said, but for now Stanton looks locked into the No. 4 spot.

I love L.A.

Giancarlo Stanton's first World Series home run is a titanic, two-run shot, giving the Yanks a 2-1 lead here in the sixth - and that's all for Dodgers starter Jack Flaherty.

That's Stanton's sixth homer of this postseason, and his 17th home run in 37 career postseason games. Statcast had the ball off the bat at 116.6-mph, estimated to have traveled 412 feet.

Seemed further than that. And it followed a third straight strikeout by Aaron Judge, still waiting for his big October moment.

Dodgers on the board

It’s that increasingly rare postseason thing – a starting pitcher’s battle through five innings.

But the Dodgers just scored first, on a one-out Enrique Hernandez triple and a Will Smith sac fly to right, where Juan Soto made it close with a good throw home.

The place shook as Hernandez slid home just ahead of the tag, making it 1-0 LA. Jack Flaherty is at 74 pitches and Cole is at 66.

Stanton back in SoCal

ALCS MVP Giancarlo Stanton (0-for-2) has some monster regular season stats in this ballpark (10 homers in 25 games) and he grew up in nearby Sherman Oaks attending Dodgers games – often sitting in the left field bleachers.

As a Marlin, Stanton once cleared the left field pavilion with a homer. As a Yankee, he homered in the 2022 All-Star Game here and was named the game’s MVP.

Judge noted how “excited’’ Stanton was to arrive here for his first World Series and try to “do something special.’’

Asked about that level of excitement, Judge said he knew it “the moment I saw his pass list,’’ with so many relatives and friends attending.

Cole customer

We're scoreless through three, with Gerrit Cole ending with a swinging strikeout of Shohei Ohtani on a 2-2 curve.

Since the Freeman triple, Cole - a SoCal raised UCLA alumni - has retired seven straight with three Ks...

...and now he's through four innings, having retired 10 straight in a scoreless game.

Jack Flaherty was coveted by the Yankees

Dodgers’ starter Jack Flaherty has just completed another scoreless frame, in this scoreless third inning – aided by a DP grounder by Juan Soto.

At the trade deadline, Yankees GM Brian Cashman was heavily involved in trying to lure Flaherty from the Detroit Tigers. Instead, the Dodgers landed him in a two-player package that sent Trey Sweeney to Detroit.

Seven months earlier, the Yanks had shipped Sweeney (a former Yankee first round pick) to LA in a deal that netted lefty reliever Victor Gonzalez (eventually released by the Yanks) and second baseman Jorbit Vivas.

“I think Jack Flaherty is an exceptional starter,” Cashman said at the time, adding that he “certainly would have loved to have him as a choice for us, as well as anybody else that would potentially be an upgrade on our rotation.’’

There was some question about medical reports on Flaherty’s lower back, but “at the end of the day, I would have brought Jack Flaherty in if I could have matched up.’’

Dodging one in the first

Gerrit Cole dodged out of that first inning, stranding Freddie Freeman after a two-out triple - even while running on that compromised ankle.

In left field with two out, Alex Verdugo, the ex-Dodger outfielder, misread the carom on Freeman's slicing liner and wound up on third base but Cole got the always-dangerous Teoscar Hernandez to line out to short.

Before that, the great Shohei Ohtani led off by swinging at Cole's first pitch and flying out to deep center. Mookie Betts next flied out to the left field track.

Nothing in the NYY first

Dodgers starter Jack Flaherty should've been out of the first inning one batter sooner, but shortstop Tommy Edman booted Giancarlo Stanton's grounder.

But Jazz Chisholm Jr. grounded out to end the inning, with Flaherty working around a Juan Soto walk. Chisholm Jr. is 3-for-27 (.111) in the playoffs since homering in Game 2 of the ALDS vs. Kansas City.

Yankees' ace is back in the World Series

Gerrit Cole was fresh off pitching in a World Series when he joined the Yankees.

At one point during his 2019 introductory Bronx press conference, the club’s new ace spoke of the “need to win a world championship and ideally more than one’’ over the length of his nine-year contract.

Starting World Series Game 5 in 2019, Cole had pitched the Houston Astros within a win of a world championship, but Juan Soto’s Washington Nationals prevailed in seven games.

Tonight, Cole arrives at his first World Series with the Yankees, starting Game 1 at Dodger Stadium.

Five years in the making, this assignment against the Dodgers comes seven months after Cole’s elbow scare, diagnosed in spring training with nerve inflammation.

During his rehab, “I found myself feeling really blessed a lot of times to just take in a lot of the great players we have and see the game’’ in a new frame, Cole said.

In those days leading up to his June 19 return, Cole felt “as if you were taking your kid to a baseball game for the first time,’’ just absorbing “the competitiveness of the players.

“So, that was a perspective that was nice to have, and hopefully I learned some things from it.’’

Roster wise, the Yankees have taken versatile infielder Jon Berti off their roster due to a hip flexor injury suffered in ALCS Game 4.

Lefty Nestor Cortes was added, following his rehab from a left elbow strain, though the Yankees were taking 13 pitchers regardless, according to manager Aaron Boone.

Follow here for our updates and analysis throughout Game 1 of the 2024 World Series: