Clarke Schmidt watched, but occasionally his eyes wandered. Seated at the far end of the New York Yankees dugout, Schmidt watched the field and how the game unfolded, then looked around at the sold-out crowd at Dodger Stadium. He looked at the lights and the scoreboard and the sheer size of the World Series.

“Getting a feel for the atmosphere,” the Yankees righthander said this weekend, “getting a feel for the pace of the game and paying as much attention to the little things as possible.”

For Schmidt, Games 1 and 2 were more than Yankees defeats. They learned moments for a difficult assignment, one done by the likes of Whitey Ford and Don Larsen; Johnny Podres and Fernando Valenzuela; Bret Saberhagen and Bob Ojeda; Ron Guidry and David Cone. Each of these pitchers were among those who successfully saved their teams from the particular type of disaster the Yankees now face.

With those losses in LA, the Yankees became the 56th team in World Series history to trail 0-2 in a best-of-seven game. Only 10 of these teams have rallied to win it all. If the Yankees want to become 11th, Schmidt must withstand the kind of moment that remains enshrined in the memories of those who have experienced it before.

“It’s like yesterday when I saw the Dodgers win,” Steve Blass said Sunday afternoon, the memories flooding back as he watched this year’s Fall Classic. In the 1971 World Series, when his Pittsburgh Pirates trailed the formidable Baltimore Orioles 2-0 in the series, Blass fired a complete game gem in Game 3, thus beginning the kind of comeback the Yankees hope to pull off.

“No one said it would be easy,” manager Aaron Boone said. “It’s a long series, and we have to make it a long series now. We will not back down. We just have to get on with it.”

Blass, 82, recalled how he “ripped my face off” during a terrible NLCS against the San Francisco Giants in which he allowed nine runs in just seven innings in two starts. He didn’t know if he would get another chance, but he remembered being “obsessed” with getting the ball again. One question haunted him: “Am I good enough?”

“I said, if I get the chance, I’m going to come back and be the pitcher I was. That’s what got me to the big leagues,” said Blass, who was aware of the commitment.

The math was as simple then as it is now: No team in World Series history has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit. “If you lose Game 3, you don’t win four in a row after that,” he said. “It was a game we literally had to win. And I threw the game of my life.”

After that game, Blass’ father jumped onto the Pirates dugout and then onto the field. Just five days later, Blass threw another complete game to win Game 7, once again proving that a comeback was possible.

Now the Yankees need Schmidt next in line.

Schmidt, 28, was especially reliable for the Yankees. He went 5-5 with a 2.85 ERA in 16 starts during the regular season, which were sandwiched around a stint on the 60-day injured list due to a right lat strain. In Schmidt’s two playoff starts, the Yankees won one and lost the other, although he went 4 2/3 innings each time while giving up two earned runs. He called the pressure just “part of the game” in his next assignment.

“When we started working on this, we knew we couldn’t really have any expectations,” he said. “Anything can happen in this match. Down 1-0, down 2-0, whatever the situation is, we have to go out and win a ball game. We will be happy to be back home, in front of the public.”

If he needs motivation, Schmidt can look to his own franchise.

Of the Yankees’ 27 World Series championships, four have come after trailing 0-2 to start a seven-game series. The first instance occurred in 1956, when the Brooklyn Dodgers put themselves in position to earn back-to-back wins in the Fall Classic, only for Whitey Ford to save the Yankees in Game 3. It happened again in 1958, when the Milwaukee Braves seized the early advantage, but faltered in seven games thanks to the Game 3 heroics of the Yankees’ Don Larsen.

Or Schmidt could look back to 1978. That season, the Yankees were in exactly the same situation, down 2-0 to the Dodgers in the World Series, having suffered a tough loss in Los Angeles before boarding a long flight back to the World Series. East Coast. Before the team took the field ahead of Game 3, Thurman Munson called a brief team meeting on the field.

“When he first started talking … it was something along the lines of, ‘I wouldn’t mind losing to the Dodgers,’” said then-Yankees pitcher Ron Guidry. “That in itself gets your attention because you think he’s giving up. But what he meant to say was, “I wouldn’t mind losing to the Dodgers if they just beat us.” But we beat ourselves. ”

Thurman Munson and Ron Guidry after Game 3 of the 1978 World Series. (Heinz Kluetmeier/Sport Illustrated via Getty Images)

The Yankees promptly stopped beating themselves. Guidry, now 74, had a lot to do with it. He would go on to win the AL Cy Young that year, and in Game 3 he looked good. Before the start, he recalled the words of Munson, who told his teammates that if Guidry could do his part, the Yankees could win the series. It turned out exactly as the catcher envisioned: Guidry allowed just one run in a complete-game victory and the Yankees would not lose again on their way to a championship.

It would take eighteen years, but the Yankees’ next title would come about in much the same way.

In 1996, the Yankees lost their first two games at home to the Braves before heading to Atlanta.

“We were embarrassed at home in the first two games and the general feeling was that we were outmatched by the Braves,” said former Yankees right-hander David Cone, who drew the crucial assignment for Game 3. “I was more determined than nervous. the beginning.”

That determination showed when Cone lasted six innings while giving up just one run.

“We knew if we could win Game 3, that hope would be restored,” Cone said of a win that would launch a dynasty. “The pressure was enormous and every ball mattered. That match got our pride back.”

The Yankees could be aiming for a restoration of pride. The team’s return to the game’s biggest stage was bumpy. Playing in their first World Series since 2009, the Yankees have been burned by infield blunders and an offense that has been handcuffed, thanks in part to Aaron Judge’s tremendous struggles. A quick turnaround is needed before the Yankees can have any hope of securing their first title in 15 years.

In Los Angeles, Schmidt took in the sights and sounds of an epic World Series. For the Yankees to survive, Schmidt must apply these lessons in Game 3.

“Every game is probably a must-win at this point,” Schmidt said. “But we’re two down. We know we have to keep fighting and win the next game.”

(Top photo of Clarke Schmidt: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)