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    • Yankees, inspired by Red Sox ’04 comeback, look to make history
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    Yankees, inspired by Red Sox ’04 comeback, look to make history

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    NEW YORK − The electronic board in the clubhouse of the New York Yankees made their strategy for this World Series visible to everyone on Tuesday evening.

    “Win Tomorrow Fly Thursday.”

    The Yankees plan to fly to Los Angeles on that flight after beating the Dodgers 11-4 and staying alive in the World Series, with their players repeating the mantra made famous by Kevin Millar of the Boston Red Sox in 2004.

    “Don’t let us win tonight.”

    It was the year the Red Sox became the first and only baseball team in postseason history to go three games down and come back to win the series against the Yankees in the ALCS, leading to their first World Series title since 1918.

    The documentary of that historic comeback has just been released on Netflix.

    “I’d like to make another one,” grinned Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo.

    With their bitter history, who would have ever guessed that the Yankees would use the Red Sox as their inspiration and try to go where no World Series team has gone before?

    “The one thing about us,” Yankees third baseman Jazz Chisholm said, “is we love history. We love making history. So we’re trying to do something that’s never been done before.

    “I want my name in that history book.”

    The first chapter was written when the Yankees finally looked like the Bronx Bombers, hitting three home runs off three different Dodger pitchers and surviving another historic home run from Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, with a confidence that finally radiated from their clubhouse.

    GAME 4: Dodgers stuck to the plan and dropped the first shot to win it all

    “I feel like we’re in our flow,” Chisholm said. “We’re starting to swing the bats well. That’s what we’ve been trying to do all playoffs, and it hasn’t been like that. It’s like three or four guys leave, and now the whole team is in.”

    The Yankees offense delivered in every facet, hitting three home runs, including Anthony Volpe’s grand slam, stealing five bases, hitting three doubles and scoring eleven runs. According to OptaSTATS, this is a feat no team has accomplished since at least 1898.

    “We know we’re a really good team, and today reminds us why we’ve come this far and are in the World Series,” said Chisholm, who had a single, a walk and a stolen base. “We still laugh and say, ‘We got this, buddy.’

    “This (stuff) won’t be easy, but this is what we were made for. Who doesn’t want to make history. I know I like to write history. I love writing my name in the history books and being a part of it.

    “If anyone can do it, this is the team to do it.”

    There have been 25 teams in World Series history that have trailed to 0 in 3 games. Teams have been swept 21 times. Three teams forced a Game 5. No team trailing 3-0 has ever forced a Game 6.

    Now it’s three games to one, with Rizzo on the last team to do it with the Chicago Cubs against Cleveland in 2016.

    “We reminded ourselves that a lot of times that year we won three games in a row,” Rizzo said. “So we can do it again. And we did that.”

    The Yankees seemed to go down meekly again when Freeman silenced the sellout crowd before they could get their popcorn, hitting a two-run homer off starter Luis Gil in the first inning. It was his fourth home run in the Series and the sixth consecutive World Series game he homered, dating back to 2021, an all-time record.

    But instead of becoming demoralized, the Yankees shrugged their shoulders.

    “It’s happened in every game,” Chisholm said. “So I don’t feel like it’s going to hurt us one way or the other. It’s becoming a routine for him, right? But at the same time, two runs are never that much for us.

    “This is a team that only needs two batters to do that, and I feel like anyone can do it, one through nine.”

    The man who did it and relived the Yankees’ season happened to be the 23-year-old kid who grew up in New Jersey as a Yankee fan while worshiping Hall of Fame shortstop Derek Jeter. He still has photos of himself as an 8-year-old at the Yankees’ 2009 World Series parade.

    On this night, he cemented his name in Yankee folklore, becoming the first player to hit a grand slam to take the lead while his team was on the verge of elimination. He also joined Hall of Famer Eddie Collins in 1910 as the only players to score at least two extra base hits and two stolen bases in a World Series game.

    The Yankees, who had been terrible in the clutch all series, going 4-for-23 with runners in scoring position, trailed 2-1 when Volpe stepped to the plate with two outs in the third inning. Dodgers veteran reliever Daniel Hudson started Volpe with a 90-mph slider. Volpe sent it to the left-center seats. The sold-out crowd went wild.

    “It’s like you’ve finally seen the top of Yankee Stadium,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone, “in a World Series game.”

    As fans danced in their seats, Chisholm jumped into the air, the Yankees hugged in the dugout and Volpe briefly lost consciousness.

    “I think I pretty much blacked out as soon as I saw him go over the fence,” Volpe said. “I think everyone had faith in everyone in the lineup that someone was going to get the big hit. We had such good at bats and put such good swings on the ball that it felt like it was only a matter of time.”

    By the time the game ended, when Volpe doubled, stole two bases and made a dazzling defensive play in the ninth inning, the sold-out crowd of 49,354 stood and chanted his name.

    He was asked where that was among the greatest sensations of his life?

    “Number one,” he said. “Absolutely number one.”

    Truly, Volpe says, just the idea of ​​him playing for the Yankees, in a World Series, in Yankee Stadium, almost defies comprehension.

    It still doesn’t dawn on him that he is achieving the same dream he dreamed of every night of his life: not only becoming a World Series hero, but also being interviewed after the game by his idol Derek Jeter on the FOX set .

    “It’s pretty crazy to think about,” Volpe said. “It’s my dream, but it was the dreams of all my friends, all my cousins, and probably my sister’s dream too. But winning the World Series was by far the most important thing. Nothing else compares.”

    Volpe’s home run was like an instant magical elixir, leaving the entire Yankee team exhaling. Before the Yankees knew it, everyone was coming out of their slump. MVP Aaron Judge, who hit .140 with 20 strikeouts this postseason, went one for three and reached base three times without striking out. Catcher Austin Wells, who was in a 4-43 slump, hit a double and a home run. Second baseman Gleyber Torres hit a three-run homer.

    But the star of the show was Volpe, who took a page from Hollywood, turning a Yankee fan into a real-life Yankee hero with all his friends and family in the stands.

    “I honestly can’t even imagine it,” Wells said. “Just his entire family was long-time Yankee fans, he was at the parade in ’09, grew up a Yankees fan, is now the shortstop and hits a grand slam in the World Series in a must-win game.

    “I mean, it doesn’t get any better than that. That’s pretty cool.”

    Now the Yankees hope to bring their new offense back to Los Angeles, with ace Gerrit Cole on the mound for Game 5 on Wednesday. He gave up just one run in six innings in Game 1 before Freeman’s historic walkoff grand slam in the 10e collection. They will also have their closer, Luke Weaver, as the Yankees were able to retire him after the eighth inning when they scored five runs.

    “If we take Weaver out of the game and have him available,” Rizzo said, “that will hopefully be a big storyline.”

    The way the Yankees see it, they’ve now completed the hardest part in their quest for history.

    They won their first match.

    “I’ve heard Kevin Millar’s speech many times,” Rizzo said. “We plan to take that momentum, take that flight to LA, and it will be special.

    “I can’t wait.”

    Follow Nightengale on X: @Bnightengale

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