Down to One Last Breath - Yankees vs. Dodgers (Game 3 Recap)
Much like the 46,000 in attendance, I entered the night cautiously optimistic that the Yanks would come out with a strong effort in Game 3. Our pitching staff had performed relatively well to this point and the bats would surely respond to the raucous Bronx crowd. And look! Jeter is throwing out the first pitch!
The last morsel of faith I had in this team faded away the second Fat Joe (Scary Movie 3, Happy Feet) began his horrible 9-minute, Ecko Unltd-ass mashup of Z100 songs you hate. Mr. Joe scuffed up the infield with his dumbass Timbs while offering a comprehensive preview of the evening - lagging a full second behind his backing track, similar to the Yanks on 1st pitch fastballs.
While much of the Game 3 blame should be attributed to the offense, Clarke Schmidt did the Yankees absolutely no favors. With the crowd somehow engaged after Fat’s performance, he missed the zone by 2 feet on 4 consecutive pitches to lead off the game. Ohtani stood on 1st in some sort of modified eagle pose, relieved he didn’t need to even think about swinging the bat with his busted shoulder.
Schmidt’s lack of control would be the theme of his extremely short night, as he missed the zone on 31 of his 68 pitches. That of course does not include the cookie he served up to future World Series MVP, Freddie Freeman - who could barely keep his veneers in his mouth as he trotted around the bases for the 3rd time in as many games.
Clarke led off the 3rd with yet another, non-competitive, 4-pitch walk - this time, to the 9-hitter. Edman would then be driven in on a jam shot to right by Mookie Betts to give LA a 3-0 lead. As it turns out, this deficit would be completely insurmountable as the “Bombers” gave us one of the worst offensive performances you’ll ever see.
Buehler definitely deserves some credit for pounding the zone - but for the life of me, I do not understand why the entire Yankee lineup decided to spend the night taking fastballs right down the dick with their season on the line!
The fans’ desperate attempt to “Trea Turner” ovate Judge back to life was an abject failure. However, his 0-3 with a walk (and just 1 strikeout!) served as one of the better offensive showings from this pathetic ass lineup.
Besides Stanton (so fucking tired of saying this) no one had remotely competitive at bats. Batter after batter fell behind in the count, while praying to be walked by a Dodger staff that threw nothing but strikes. Do you guys see the fucking monuments in center field? Does anyone have the slightest urge to join these guys as the legend that dragged the 2024 Yankees back from the dead? Nope - Jazz and company are probably still bitching about strike calls while our World Series drought approaches 2 decades.
Every talking head is having a field day roasting Rojas for sending Stanton in the 4th - but can you really blame him? He’s been 90 feet away from 2.5 games worth of offensive incompetence. Waving Giancarlo’s broken bones around 3rd and forcing Teoscar to make a throw gives us a better chance of scoring than hoping this lineup strings together 3 hits in an inning.
The sickest joke of the night is of course Verdugo going yahtzee with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th. Great, let’s restore our idiot manager’s confidence in the one guy he might have replaced as we face elimination for the next week (potentially 12 hours). This was the least competitive 4-2 game you’ll ever see and my heart truly goes out to those poor Yankee fans that just blew thousands of dollars to witness this nonsense in person.
I’d love to give some sort of “rah rah” miracle speech to close this thing out, but its just not in me right now. I’ve seen far too many Boone-led playoff losses that look just like this one to truly believe that this team is capable of pulling off the impossible.
How about you prove me wrong? How about you show some balls instead of crying to umpires and going down in the most pathetic fashion imaginable? Is that too really too much to ask?
