The Ups and Downs of the 2024 World Series

Image Courtesy of Major League Baseball

By Zachary Lichter

The 2024 World Series between the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers was unlike any other. It was a battle between two old franchises and the East Coast and West Coast. It also featured the marquee matchup between the Yankees’ right fielder, Aaron Judge, and the Dodgers’ designated hitter, Shohei Ohtani.

Before coming to the World Series, the Yankees won a 4-1 series against the Cleveland Guardians in the American League Championship Series. The Dodgers beat the New York Mets 4-2 in the National League Championship. Both teams faced each other in the World Series for the first time since 1981.

Game 1 of the 2024 World Series began on October 25 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Dodger fans wanted their team to grab a 1-0 lead in this series. 

The Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole pitched six innings, and the Yankees designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton hit a two-run home run in the sixth inning, giving the Yankees a 2-1 lead. As the game went into extra innings, the Yankees almost won 3-2 thanks to a forceout by their shortstop, Anthony Volpe. But then, at the bottom of the tenth inning, the Dodgers’ first baseman, Freddie Freeman, hit a walk-off grand slam, giving the Dodgers a 6-3 win.

Game 2 didn’t look any better for the Yankees the next day with their pitcher, Carlos Rodón, on the mound. He gave up a home run to the Dodgers centerfielder, Tommy Edman. Then, in the third inning, he gave up a two-run home run to the Dodgers left fielder, Teoscar Hernández, and Freeman hit another home run. The Dodgers beat the Yankees 4-2, sending them to New York with a 2-0 lead.

Jamison Marcoux, a senior sports management and marketing major, commented about the Dodgers hitting in the World Series.

“This team’s offense was able to beat teams in so many ways: they could hit for contact, they had strong baserunning, they could hit for power, and they had good situational hitting that I haven’t seen from a Dodgers team in a while. While a lot of the offense throughout the regular season was powered by Ohtani, that was not necessarily the case in the postseason because all of this team’s hitters contributed, especially from their 7-9 hitters.”

Yankee fans hoped they would make a comeback as the World Series shifted to the Bronx for Games 3, 4, and 5 beginning on October 28 of this year. Unfortunately, that didn’t last long because Freeman hit a two-run home run in the first inning. 

The Yankees also struggled to get the ball past the Dodgers pitcher, Walker Buehler, who pitched for five innings. The Dodgers won 4-2, making them one win away from the World Series.

The next day, it was no surprise that Freeman hit another two-run home run in the first inning, and it looked like the Dodgers would win the World Series. Though, in the third inning, Volpe hit a grand slam to give the Yankees a 5-2 lead. The hope of staying alive in the World Series finally came through for the Yankees after a five-run eighth inning as they won 11-4, forcing Game 5.

David Zappe, a junior finance major, commented on why the Yankees hitting suddenly changed in Game 4.

“Through three games it was evident that the Yankees had a bad case of the heebie-jeebies,” Zappe said. “Game 4 seemed to be an anomaly in the midst of an overall mediocre Yankees series performance.”

As fans piled into Yankee Stadium the next day for Game 5, all they could think about was that if the Yankees won, they would go back to Los Angeles and win two more games against the Dodgers.

Everything was going to plan right in the first inning when Judge and the Yankees’ third baseman, Jazz Chisholm Jr., hit back-to-back home runs. But as the Yankees entered the fifth inning, their plans of going to Los Angeles went off course, as the Dodgers had a five-run fifth inning, which tied the game up at five runs apiece. Stanton retook the lead in the sixth inning with a sacrifice fly, but then the Dodgers shortstop, Mookie Betts, hit a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning, capping off the World Series with a 7-6 win.

Freeman won the Willie Mays Most Valuable Player award. The Dodgers won their eigth World Series title in franchise history.