No team is karmically deserving of a championship, although that sentiment is especially true this year. Neither the Dodgers nor the Yankees are gentle on the moral scale of historical suffering, but on paper they can make up for it by promising entertainment for the masses: powerhouse versus powerhouse, star-laden. What then is to be made of the fact that one of the alleged powerhouses currently looks not only like an ant, but also one of those species of ants whose primary defense mechanism is literally exploding?

After falling behind 2-0 against the Dodgers to open the World Series, the Yankees spent their first game at home, making their eventual 4-2 loss feel like a blow. By the laws of arithmetic, the Yankees are now down 3-0. The sweeping alarm goes off! The spaceship sends itself straight into the sun! The Dodgers continued to find their postseason success from relatively unexpected sources. The FOX “Three Batters Away” style chyrons for Shohei Ohtani (though also used for other stars, like Juan Soto and Bryce Harper) didn’t pay off even before people started making slow-motion videos of Ohtani’s backpack-wearing range of motion . But then again, the Dodgers didn’t need them. Finally: Freddie Freeman.

While “more unexpected” would take a lot of work to describe Freeman’s exploits in the context of his broader career, the man had a wanderer’s ankle and zero extra base hits through the first two rounds of the playoffs. Expectations were low, through no fault of his own. What that analysis didn’t take into account was that Freeman would simply turn into a home run machine; there’s no need to run on a tramp ankle when you’re doing a leisurely home run trot. (Freeman said in the immediate post-game interview that days off before the series gave him time to heal and practice his swing. Another win for the well-resourced lobby.)

Freeman’s first-inning home run gave him a streak of five straight games with a home run in the World Series, snapping a two-game streak from his days with the Atlanta Braves. He combined with the Dodgers’ pitching staff to put the game out of reach in the first inning: After the home run, the only thing left to learn seemed to be whether Walker Buehler had it that night. He did.

None of these facts are inexplicable. This is what a well-rounded team does, when enough things click. But they still fall under the mild umbrella of “more unexpected.” The Dodgers have found three reliable starters despite entering the postseason with a half-and-a-half starter, a half-starter, or a half-starter. Post-TJ surgery Buehler had a tough regular season; Yoshinobu Yamamoto was porky but impressive, although he was also plagued by injury. It gives an eerie effect to the Dodgers’ 3-0 series lead, even if that lead is hardly unearned. I think Tommy Edman can be on base 90 percent of the time, but a 3-0 lead without one Ohtani homer? And for that matter, a Yankees World Series without an Aaron Judge home run?

Judge has reached the unfortunate point in this series where putting the ball in play is a good sign, and a walk is a good sign. After last night’s game, he has seven strikeouts and one hit in twelve at bats, numbers that look even worse because Juan Soto was often on the starting lineup during these at bats. It’s a typical cold streak at the wrong time, and the current 3-0 scoreline leaves Judge with little time to turn the tide. Not that it’s all his fault. As Mark Leiter Jr. is present in the third inning, something else has gone terribly wrong; when Giancarlo Stanton, partner in crabmeat with Freddie Freeman, is sent around third place to make the final at home, things go terribly wrong.

A victory of sorts for the Yankees is that they managed to keep Game 3 so close that Michael Kopech came out in the ninth inning. One loss for the Yankees is that, even with Alex Verdugo’s two-run, short-porch homer and attempted recapture of the vibes in the bottom of the ninth, the possibility of a comeback was never real. Verdugo’s home run came with two outs, and Gleyber Torres grounded out to lose the game. And thus a 4-2 blowout.

While it would be unfair to hold every game in the series to the standard of the first, it would be nice to see the Yankees at least compete. Game 4 will be their best chance to do this: Although the Dodgers have collected three starters, they have been unable to conjure up a fourth and will trot out of the bullpen for Game 4. There are some caveats. The fame penalty for the reliever is real, although there are several explanations for its cause; even in that light, Dave Roberts has distributed his relievers well. Two of the Dodgers’ best bullpen, Anthony Banda and Alex Vesia, have yet to even see the Soto-Judge-Stanton triad this series, but they, along with Kopech, have pitched in all three games so far.

And when the Dodgers trot out of the bullpen for Game 4, the moral crown is certainly not theirs. Regardless of your opinion of the Dodgers or Yankees, it should be illegal for a team to win a World Series ring after a bullpen game. In that light, the Yankees are temporarily the moral agents of Major League Baseball. Doesn’t that feel good?