LOS ANGELES – Juan Soto walked out of the Yankees clubhouse with a frown. Aaron Boone walked down the hall with a furrowed brow and an irritated look that he couldn’t hide. Even Aaron Judge, who likes to put a little smile at the end of his answers no matter the day or the outcome of a match, struggled to really get there. The atmosphere was determined by their exceptional silence. The only noise made was the clubhouse attendants hitting a table with their cleats to get all the dirt off.

This one hurt.

“It’s a seven-game series. You’re going to lose tough games,” Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. “We’ve had tough losses in the past. This is what defines character. Yes, it hurts because of the magnitude. But I wouldn’t say anyone is more pissed off than any other loss.”

The Yankees said all the right things, as if they were shrugging it off and getting back to it Saturday, but their angry expressions told a different story after losing 6-3 to the Dodgers in the 10th inning of Game 1 of the World. Series. You can’t blame them for being shocked or dejected; The stage was set for the Yankees to secure a road victory until Freddie Freeman hit the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history off left-handed Nestor Cortes.

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Despite their defensive blunders and a curious early hook on Gerrit Cole, the Yankees were one out away from a Game 1 victory when Cortes’ second pitch in 37 days — a 90-mph fastball, low and inside, just where Freeman likes runs with the ball – was hit halfway through the right-field pavilion at Dodger Stadium. Cortes’ first pitch caused Shohei Ohtani to fly out in foul territory, where left fielder Alex Verdugo tumbled in and over the rail and made a spectacular catch for the second of the 10th inning. The Yankees never got a chance to celebrate that courageous play, as Mookie Betts was walked intentionally to load the bases and a Freeman-induced nightmare immediately ensued.

“Maybe just two or three inches higher,” Cortes said when asked where he wanted his fastball to Freeman. “I thought I got it to the inside of the plate where I wanted it, but I couldn’t get it up enough.”

Cortes spent the days leading up to Friday’s relief appearance convincing the Yankees he belonged on the World Series roster. He missed the final week of the regular season, as well as the first two rounds of the postseason in New York, due to an elbow flexor strain. There was a clear need for his left-handed arm on the pitching staff and Cortes was eager to help his team win. Boone believed he could do that now that the Dodgers’ top two left-handed hitters were on the schedule.

“The reality is he’s been throwing the ball really well the last few weeks as he’s been preparing for this,” Boone said of Cortes. “I knew it would be difficult to double Shohei if Tim Hill got him on the ground. And then Mookie behind him is a tough match, so I felt convicted with Nestor in that spot.”

Although Cortes did more damage than good in Game 1, he should get at least one more chance to make up for his mistake in the Series. After all, he was hardly the only Yankee to make a mistake.

Soto overran a liner from Kiké Hernández in right field in the fifth inning, turning what should have been a double into a triple. The Dodgers promptly took advantage of Soto’s misplay by hitting a sacrifice fly to score Hernández from third for the game’s first run. In the eighth, Ohtani ripped a double with an exit velocity of 110 mph to right, which Soto fired off the wall. He double-pumped before getting the throw-in to second, where Gleyber Torres couldn’t handle the scoop as the ball ricocheted off his glove and into no man’s land near the mound. Ohtani advanced to third base – Soto was charged with an error – and Mookie Betts promptly hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game, 2-2.

Such mistakes cannot happen again at this point in the long season.

“Every little thing in the game is an opportunity for the offense to score another point,” Torres said. “And yeah, Ohtani went to third and Mookie hit the ball up the middle and it was a tie game. I have to make an adjustment and if I get a chance to block the ball, just keep it up front and make it a ​​a little easier.”

The Yankees overcame defensive blunders and Boone’s questionable decision to bring Cole — he had allowed just one run and allowed four batters to get through more than six innings and 88 pitches safely — into the bottom of the 10th inning with a 3-2 lead. Playoff hero Giancarlo Stanton hit his fourth home run in his past four games; this was a two-run shot in the sixth that put the Yankees ahead 2–1. Stanton needs one more home run in October to become the first Yankee in franchise history to hit seven home runs in a single postseason.

But the Yankees’ triumphs that would have been big in Game 1 are now buried somewhere under the Dodgers’ dogpile at home plate.

“That’s where we had our chances,” said Judge, who went 1 for 5, striking out three and stranding two runners while popping out to end the top of the ninth. “Back and forth the whole game. We had our chances to put them away. We just couldn’t do that. And at the end they came with a big blow.”

The Yankees could have used more of it. They now hand the ball to Carlos Rodón for Game 2 on Saturday – with Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the doorstep for the Dodgers – hoping the southpaw can carry them back to the Bronx with a series split. As Rizzo said, brutal losses can define a team’s character. The Yankees may only have one more day in LA to show who they are.

Deesha Thosar is an MLB reporter for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.

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