NEW YORK – Before a do-or-die Game 4 at Yankee Stadium, Jazz Chisholm thought about wearing Timberlands onto the field for batting practice. They were donated to the team by outfielder Alex Verdugo, who “just wanted to do something cool for the guys.”

In the three games leading up to the World Series, a Yankees offense that had launched more home runs and taken more free passes than any team in baseball looked like a shadow of itself. At the time Freddie Freeman launched another first-inning lead in Game 4, he had driven in more runs than the entire New York lineup during the series.

The Yankees entered Tuesday evening with a total of seven runs in three games and only four hits with runners in scoring position. They looked sharp. Verdugo, whose ninth-inning home run the night before accounted for the only runs in Game 3, tried to loosen things up. Well, that, plus he “felt like Timberlands feels like New York” and that he wanted to “give the boys a pair of walking shoes.”

“Mine was more: give them that, give them something to lighten it,” Verdugo said.

Whether the gift helped at all, or whether the Yankees offense simply enjoyed watching a Dodgers bullpen play with a parade of their lower-leverage arms, the group eventually combusted in an 11-4 defeat.

A change in mindset was part of the equation.

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“The situation we were in, I think we just had to say, ‘Fuck it,’ get after it and have fun because some guys may never get back to the World Series,” catcher Austin Wells said. “So by enjoying the game, I think that allowed us to play a lot looser tonight.”

Anthony Volpe’s grand slam, which finally gave Yankee Stadium a reason to erupt, didn’t hurt either. Wells said he thought the goal allowed the rest of the lineup to take a deep breath.

It also forced Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to think long term. He essentially punted the rest of the way, the same way he did in Game 2 of the NLCS when the Mets took the lead early in a bullpen game, so as not to overload the relievers he trusts most or let the opposition push them not to show. a game they probably wouldn’t play anyway. It worked then.

The danger with that decision Tuesday is that it helped a group of shuffling Yankees hitters break out and gain confidence.

Wells, who went 4-for-43 to start the postseason and was cleared the previous game, followed Volpe’s explosion with a home run three innings. Then came a five-run barrage in the eighth, as Gleyber Torres put the game away with the Yankees’ third home run of the night.

A Yankees offense that had not scored more than three runs in a game during the series erupted with nine hits and six free passes against a medley of Dodgers relievers. The bottom of the lineup provided a spark, but eight of the nine players in the lineup reached base. Perhaps most encouraging for the Yankees, Aaron Judge showed some promising signs, reaching base four times and driving in a run in his final at-bat of the game.

“Once he gets on base, I feel like everyone gets going,” Chisholm said.

The World Series had gone eleven years in a row without a sweep. The Yankees awoke from their slumber and extended that streak to 12. The 11-run fusillade tied for the second most ever by a club on the brink of elimination from the World Series.

The offensive approach that got them to the World Series finally emerged and helped them keep their season alive.

“Knowing that this was the last guaranteed baseball day of the season, I definitely didn’t want to take it for granted and I wanted to enjoy the moment,” Wells said. “I think if you put too much pressure on it at this point, it’s just… you’re going to fail yourself, and you’re not going to enjoy the journey.”

That journey now continues Thursday, when the Yankees should feel good about their chances of sending the series back to Los Angeles.

If they are able to do that, they will make history. The Yankees are the 25th team to trail 3-0 in the World Series. Twenty-one of the previous 24 teams that faced that margin were swept. The other three lost in Game 5.

But Gerrit Cole was not on the mound for the other three.

“Every time G goes out, we feel like we’re in a great place,” Chisholm said. “He’s the best pitcher in the world. When you see him there, you see confidence.”

Cole allowed just one run and only four baserunners in six innings to start the series. He left with the lead in a match that ended with a walk-off grand slam initiated by Freeman, who has made his mark in every match of this series. Freeman followed those late-game heroics with a solo homer in Game 2, then quieted the Yankees crowd with a two-run shot that sapped the energy from the stadium in Game 3.

When Freeman did the exact same thing again in Game 4, setting a Major League record with a home run in his sixth consecutive World Series game, it appeared he had delivered the dagger to the Yankees’ season.

This time, however, they answered back.

The 2004 Red Sox are the only MLB team to dig their way out of a 3-0 hole in a best-of-seven series, when it did so against the Yankees in the American League Championship Series.

But the Yankees, who have three games left to play, aren’t thinking that far ahead. Anthony Rizzo, whose World Series champion Cubs triumphed in 2016 after trailing 3-1 in the World Series – where the Yankees now find themselves – knows the danger of that.

“It was all about getting to Game 6,” Rizzo said. “We knew Game 5 was going to be very difficult.”

If the offense that showed up on Wednesday manifests itself again, especially with Cole on the mound, the Yankees have a real chance to extend the streak. Even if they can’t wear Timberlands during batting practice.

“We have to focus on, ‘Win one more game,’” Judge said. “We’ll watch the end and see what happens.”

Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the LA Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. Rowan, an LSU graduate, was born in California, raised in Texas and then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.

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