The Yankees have a simple problem in this World Series. Everything they do well, the Dodgers do better: power, patience, pitching.

And then there’s so much the Yankees aren’t good at, from running the bases to running defenses, which Los Angeles also excels at.

Heck, the Dodgers even have the advantage in areas like a much louder home crowd, a deeper bench, and better pre-game rapping – Ice Cube over Fat Joe.

It sounds like a mismatch, and so far the 120th World Series is exactly that. The Yankees have waited fifteen years to play in the World Series, and with each passing game, it’s as if they were never here. At this point a CSI crew will be needed to search for fingerprints and DNA.

Game 1 was a classic that the Yankees’ defense squandered on Aaron Boone’s decision-making. And since Freddie Freeman’s grand slam decided that in the 10th inning, the Yankees haven’t had a lead and have been lifeless on offense.

I’m not sure you can be blown away by a final score of 4-2, but that’s how Game 2 and now Game 3 went. The starting pitching advantage the Yankees should have had did not materialize, especially in the last two games, when first Carlos Rodon and then Clarke Schmidt threw the Yankees behind, while Dodgers starters Yoshinobu Yamamoto and then Walker Buehler started with a baton on Monday evening. cause suffocation.

In both games, the Yankees offense slept through eight innings and got going in the ninth to cosmetically create a close final score that did not reflect the reality on the field in a series where the Dodgers now lead three games to none.

“Extremely tough,” said Alex Verdugo, whose two-run, two-out homer in the ninth inning represented the Yankee score. “They are one win away and we are four wins away. So of course you can count on that. It will be tough.”

It’s tough on steroids. Maybe you can convince someone dumb or dumber that the Yankees have a chance, because once in forty tries when a team was down 0-3 in an MLB postseason series, it came back to win. That was the 2004 Red Sox, whose comeback against the Yankees was sparked by a stolen base in Game 4 from current Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. But David Ortiz isn’t walking out of the FOX pregame through the doors of the Yankees clubhouse.

“It’s clearly not where we want to be right now,” Anthony Rizzo said. “It stinks. It absolutely stinks.”

It already feels like a Whitey Ford ago that this series’ preview featured an even combination of coastal superpowers destined to play seven games.

Instead, Freeman has tied the Yankees 3-3 in home runs and leads Los Angeles 5-3 overall in the one category the Yankees need to win to cover up spots elsewhere. Another Yankee strength is plate discipline, but it is the Dodgers who grind Yankee pitchers and convert their first two walks into runs. Shohei Ohtani, playing somewhat gingerly 48 hours after — according to the Dodgers report — dislocated his shoulder, walked to lead the game and came home on Freeman’s homer off Schmidt.

Tommy Edman walked to open the third off Schmidt, who would not survive the inning. He then created the run in a way that was generally foreign to the Yankees via legs and baseball IQ. He was running and took second on Ohtani’s groundout, then immediately got a good read that Mookie Betts’ looper would fall to right and score easily. Gavin Lux stole a base in the sixth inning and positioned himself to score on Enrique Hernandez’s signal for a 4-0 lead.

Meanwhile, the Yanks are the worst baserunning team in the Majors. Stanton, who just hit Babe Ruth this month, is still running like he’s carrying the weight of the franchise. On an Anthony Volpe two-out single to left that scores the most runners, Stanton was thrown out at home by Teoscar Hernandez.

Rodon and Schmidt combined for six innings and allowed seven runs in Games 2 and 3, compared to Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Walker Buehler who combined for 11 ¹/₃ and one run.

“Possibly when we came into this series we thought we were as good as or better than them,” Nestor Cortes said. “And it is clear that these three games have not gone our way.”

And yet the Yankees could pull off a win or two or even three if Aaron Judge were to hit. But he went 0-for-3 with a walk before falling to 1-for-12 with seven strikeouts in this World Series, 6-for-43 (.140) this postseason and 42-for-214 ( .196) in his postseason career. Judge is hitless in his last two World Series games and the Yanks are 17-34 (including postseason) when Judge is hitless in a game.

The two MVPs don’t quite shine the same with that history. The Yankees often go the way Judge does – and Judge has gone poorly in October(s). The Dodgers once again disconnected him from the soul and voice of the 49,368 in attendance at the first World Series game in The Bronx since November 4, 2009.

“Hopefully we can tell this amazing story and shock the world,” Boone said. “But right now it’s about trying to get a lead, take a game and force another one and go from there.”

That feels like an impossible mountain if you don’t do anything better than your opponent.