Dodgers 0-3 Yankees, bottom 1st

Flaherty needs to settle down and get some outs, as new bullpen play isn’t ideal for the Dodgers moving forward.

Stanton hits a rope to center field – Hernandez slips, but gathers himself and makes the catch for the second out.

Rizzo is next.

RUN HOME! Dodgers 0-3 Yankees, bottom 1st

RUN HOME! Dodgers 0-2 Yankees, bottom 1st

Dodgers 0-0 Yankees, bottom 1st

Flaherty comes after the slugger – it’s 3-0 Soto before the right hand charges.

Then Soto delivers a throw low and away – that’s ball four! One for Aaron Judge. Half a city expected!

Dodgers 0-0 Yankees, bottom 1st

Okay, Cole did his thing, what about Flaherty?

He is 0-2 ahead of Torres before he plants a ball in the ground. The 1-2 slider bounces to second base – that’s routine for Lux, who shoots to first base for the first out.

Now Juan Soto, in what could be his last game as a New York Yankee, steps into the batter’s box.

Dodgers 0-0 Yankees, top 1st

Freeman hits a ball off the opposing field fly that is far from the fence. Catch made, side retired!

It’s a 1-2-3 inning with no high stress throws for Cole. It’s exactly what he needed to come out and do.

Now come the Yankees!

Dodgers 0-0 Yankees, top 1st

Betts hits a small roller down the first base line. Rizzo retrieves the ball, steps on first base and that’s the second out.

Freddie Feeman has no one on the phone, which is best practice for New York.

First pitch!

Prediction time

For those of you keeping score at home, I picked the Dodgers in five games. Since this is Game 5, this is my moment! Tonight my choice becomes reality: the champions and the game total – fun! The score? 6-4, of course.

National Anthem

Tonight it’s Babyface! And he really shines in his black jacket – I think it’s a nice look. Very soothing and solid performance: I give it a score of 8/10, which I think puts it at the top of the 2024 World Series Anthem rankings.

That’s what he sounded like at the NBA All-Star Game, but there was no guitar tonight.

Tweet within…

FF = Freddie Freeman, who has hit a home run in six consecutive World Series games. Lucky seven for FF tonight?

The readers say…

David Athya writes:

“It’s inconceivable that the Dodgers don’t win the big prize, but tonight it’s certainly more difficult to determine and if the Yankees can even bring the prize back to Los Angeles, the drama will continue! Looks like a straight-up duel between Cole and Flaherty; Whichever man stands tallest, the more likely his team is to win. The Yankees should have gotten a morale boost with the batting output last night. Everyone expects Judge to produce eventually, but I think Stanton is the man to watch.

Well, I don’t know if it’s unthinkable. You can imagine a scenario where Cole delivers tonight and sends everyone back to Los Angeles. Then LA would completely destroy Carlos Rodon while Yoshinobu Yamamoto holds the Yankees bats at bay in Game 6.

If Judge starts producing on this series, he’s running out of time.

Setups!

I’m surprised the Yankees didn’t put Stanton back where he belongs, which is right behind Judge. Tommy Edman moves up in the lineup for LA, which makes sense since he is the NLCS MVP.

Bronx Zoo update

By now you may be familiar with the Austin Capobianco and his friend who actually attacked Mookie Betts as he chased a foul ball near the stands on Tuesday. Well, they’re banned from Game 5, which makes sense. In fact, ESPN reported that the trespassers were told that if they even tried to enter Yankee Stadium for Game 5, they would be arrested. What’s amazing is that the duo was initially told they could actually come back to watch World Series baseball. At some point, someone somewhere told the Yankees to shut these guys out.

Oh, and it turns out Capobianco was friends with Rob Gronkowski in college and spoke glowingly about his friend on Wednesday.

Only in America!

Hello!

Welcome to our live coverage of Game 5 of the 120th World Series! The Dodgers are in the Bronx to make sure they don’t leave for Los Angeles without the trophy, and to do that they will have to beat New York one last time at Yankee Stadium.

How did we get here? Well, in Game 4, the Yankees finally put some big runs on the board as they picked themselves up off the floor and defeated Los Angeles 11-4 in a game that was close until New York broke out with five runs in the eighth inning. Do the Yankees and their fans feel better about themselves now that they haven’t been wiped out by LA? Oh yeah, sure. Some of their bats woke up: Anthony Volpe hit a dramatic grand slam and Austin Wells crushed a shot from the fence before launching an eighth-inning home run. Even Aaron Judge showed some signs of coming out of his extended slump.

The problem is that LA threw away the dregs of their bullpen in a game designed to ensure their best relievers didn’t have to pitch to ensure they’re fresh for Game 5. So even if the Yankees double numbers, it wasn’t against LA’s top talent, and they probably won’t see weapons that vulnerable for the rest of the series.

Now if the Yanks can make some real Dodger pitching and win this Game 5, this series is going to get seriously serious. It means a troubled Dodgers team heads west, not for a parade but for a crucial Game 6.

Whether that happens or not will largely be in the hands of top talent Gerrit Cole, who was signed to a nine-year, $324 million contract in 2020 right before this moment. Cole needs to get New York deep into this ballgame, and he needs to be much more than above average: he needs to dominate. This is the game that will define him going forward, and in a big spot like this, with an arm that may not be the healthiest, I’m not sure I believe in a Cole who has been inconsistent this season. A power burst from Judge would also be helpful.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers are looking to their starter Jack Flaherty for a big night. Acquired by LA at the trade deadline, the former Tiger was great in Game 1, pitching in the sixth inning before making one bad throw against Giancarlo Stanton. Will we get the good Flaherty, who dominated the Mets in Game 1 of the NLCS and was strong against the Yankees on Friday, or will we see the pitcher who was absolutely outplayed by the Mets in Game 5, when the Dodgers were in the finals? exactly the same situation: trying to win and not travel home for more baseball.

There are many questions that need to be answered. And maybe you have questions, comments, thoughts or feelings that you would like to see in our live report. If so, you can tweet or email me and I will do my best to make you famous.

More live World Series coverage to come – stay with us!

David will be here soon. In the meantime, here’s a look back at Tuesday night’s Game 4, where the Yankees avoided elimination.