NEW YORK – An entire stadium held its breath, fearing the worst, as the most powerful man in the MLB playoffs weaved his way around third base like a broken jalopy.

Home plate was Giancarlo Stanton’s destination. A combination of forces – Teoscar Hernández’s rocket arm, Stanton’s molasses legs – ensured he wouldn’t reach it.

With his Yankees down three runs in the fourth inning of Game 3 of the World Series, Stanton, just before this sad dash, had doubled to left for the first Yankees hit of the game. Two batters later, with two outs on the board, shortstop Anthony Volpe hit a hit of his own, a soft line drive over the short stop’s head. Ball touching turf gave the desperate home crowd a glimmer of hope, a reason to cheer, a touch of optimism.

Just 4.5 seconds later, that light was extinguished… probably for good.

Stanton pounded along the third base line, batting gloves clutched tightly in his left hand and eyes glued to his destination. The Yankees’ design hitter, who turns 35 in 11 days, helped take this ballclub to the World Series. No one has crushed more home runs in October. But while Stanton can still hit a baseball harder than just about anyone on earth — he hit a 120-mph groundout on Monday — his baserunning is hard to believe and even harder to watch.

Built like an Adonis and slower than a statue, Stanton has been plagued by lower body injuries in recent years. This season, his sprint speed ranked in the third percentile of the entire league.

So when Hernández collected the bouncing ball and threw it home, disaster ensued on the scene. Ball and giant man arrived at the same time. Stanton jumped into a half jump, half slide, more appropriate for an inflatable slip-and-slide at a children’s birthday party.

Catcher Will Smith didn’t even have to lay down a tag; the giant runner slid right into his perfectly placed glove. Stanton was out – unequivocal and depressing. At Yankee Stadium, 49,368 frustrated souls, many of whom shelled out thousands of dollars for the privilege of watching the commotion, groaned in unison.

Stanton has been one of the few sources of offensive excellence for the Yankees this month; to see him thrown out at such a crucial moment felt helpless, disheartening, like a grandparent tumbling down a flight of stairs. It was a crushing moment, with one of the Yankees’ few bright spots falling victim to his own physical limitations.

From that moment on, the Yankees were no longer in danger in their 4-2 loss. Somehow they had put multiple runners on in the sixth and seventh, but a breakthrough felt extremely unlikely throughout. Walker Buehler dog-walked their lineup, striking out five in five scoreless frames. The Dodgers’ bullpen followed suit, allowing only two hits. Los Angeles’ 4-0 lead felt insurmountable all night, a hill disguised as Everest that the Yankees tried to climb with a backpack full of rocks. A two-run homer by Alex Verdugo with two strikes and two outs in the ninth ruined the shutout, but was little more than a footnote.

Yankees captain Aaron Judge’s struggles dominated the headlines ahead of Game 3. He entered the game 1-for-9 with six strikeouts in this World Series, but received a warm, encouraging welcome from the home crowd on Monday. After striking out in his first at-bat on a vicious cutter by Buehler, Judge made a clean connection in his second trip to the plate, throwing a flyball to left.

The crowd, desperate for a reason, stood up. But they saw what they wanted, screaming with their hearts and not with their eyes or their brains. The judge’s knock, a paltry 90 mph, lay faintly in Hernández’s cozy leather. Judge finished the night 0-for-3 with a walk. His hitting was better, but the results, which are all that matter this time of year, didn’t materialize.

So now the Yankees face an uphill battle and the burden of history. Never has a team recovered from a 3-0 deficit to win a World Series. It is known that only the 2004 Boston Red Sox, against these Yankees in the ALCS twenty years ago, have ever accomplished the feat in a best-of-seven postseason.

“If you guys watched our whole season, the ups and downs we had, the good times, the bad times, we’ve been in some tough situations,” Judge said afterward. “So, I have to keep saying it: we just have to win one game and go from there.”

After two losses in Los Angeles, the cross-country jaunt gave the Yankees a chance to reset. A new location, some home-cooked food, colder weather. But changing the gray tones for the home’s iconic pinstripes didn’t change the energy.

New York’s starter, Clarke Schmidt, walked the game’s first batter, the somewhat weak Shohei Ohtani, on just four pitches. The fans in the right field stands conducting their traditional roll call had either Volpe or third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. wasn’t even serenaded by the time Ohtani’s free pass took him to first place.

From then on it only got worse. Freddie Freeman, the presumptive World Series MVP, drove Ohtani home with a silent two-run tank to right field, his third home run in the past three games. Before the Yankees had a chance to bat, they were already out. And they would stay down.

This game was full of other encapsulations of the Yankee misfortune. It started with a lackluster on-court performance from Bronx-raised rapper Fat Joe, who failed to match Ice Cube’s West Coast magic before Game 2. After meekly turning around to end the third, Juan Soto hit his helmet on the turf. in a rare display of frustration. An inning later, Judge’s catch fueled false hope. In the sixth, Volpe swung and missed with such force that his bat flew out of his hands and into the Dodgers’ dugout, but still didn’t connect anywhere.

In the ninth inning, the lower bowl of the stadium was half empty. And when leadoff hitter Gleyber Torres bounced out to end the game, the true stalwarts left in the cheaper seats showered their beloved Bombers with a shower of boos.

It was sad and stupid, a sad excuse for a Fall Classic performance. Despite a handful of Yankees offering a barrage of irrationally optimistic post-game platitudes, the 2024 Yankees season feels over.

For a World Series that brought so much hype, it’s a shame that only one team bothered to show up.