Andrew’s One Good and One Bad (Game 3, World Series)

Andrew’s One Good and One Bad

By Andrew Hefner

October 29, 2024

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Nothing shown for the first eight innings followed by way too little, way too late. Absolutely nothing looked good for the Yankees out there last night, and going down 0-3 is certainly not what they wanted to happen. It was an embarrassment on all sides of the ball. The team that played in Yankee Stadium last night was certainly not the same team from the ALDS or ALCS, and it's not even the same team from Game 1 of this World Series. Let’s take a look at (maybe) One Good and (definitely) One Bad from Game 3 of the 2024 World Series.

The (Maybe) Good

This may be the shortest “Good” section I’ve written. Watching the game last night was quite honestly depressing because time after time again, nothing clicked leading to repeated mistakes, and most of all, no runs being scored. My “Good’ from last night is not necessarily a good thing as it was just the moment in the 9th that saved the Yankees from further embarrassing themselves by getting shut out. I like that for the past 2 games, while down by 4+, the Yanks have still found a way to fight in the 9th inning. Whether it was the lackluster finish in Game 2 with the bases loaded, or a little bit of flair shown by Alex Verdugo last night, it shows that they still can do what they need to, just too late. To reiterate, this isn’t necessarily a good thing, it just gave me (and hopefully some other fans) some hope in the 9th innings of the last 2 games.

 I’m also once again quite happy with the Yankees bullpen. Another short outing by the starter led to over 6.1 innings from the bullpen in which they only gave up one run on 3 hits.

The Bad

Where do I even start? From bad performances to wasted opportunities, there is so much that went wrong, over and over again for the Yanks in Game 3. I think, however, I will choose 11 strikeouts on the night as being the worst part of last night's game. That means 40% of the Yankees’ outs last night were via the strikeout. Those are unacceptable numbers, especially when every guy in the lineup had one, besides, who else, but Juan Soto.

8 runners were also left on base, which is only low because they struggled to get runners on base in the first place. It was strikeout after strikeout on either the same breaking ball pitches or a called strike three that may or may not have been too high or too low (I’m not here to pretend to be a better umpire). I’m just fed up that the Yankees are clearly still stuck in their old ways, striking out a ton, and doing it in high-leverage situations. Adjustments should have been made by this point in the postseason, and the fact that they haven’t yet is worrying to me. There hasn’t been improvement, and whether it's the Dodgers' pitchers doing it, or their own fault, neither are acceptable excuses for a team in the World Series.

…

I am not sure how to feel going into Game 4. I think that the emotions and reality of the situation may be getting to me, but I remain optimistic about some sort of magic to help them out. Changes need to be made ASAP, and if Boone is not in the clubhouse right now writing up a revised lineup for tomorrow, I’m not sure what he’s doing. If it’s not working, it doesn’t mean don’t fix it. The Yankees coaching staff needs to grind before tonight's Game 4, and hopefully, there will be changes in how this team operates tonight. Hopefully, the team that played in the ALCS last week will be back tonight because if they aren't, there won't be another game for the 2024 Yankees to play.