Erik Boland: Yankees face big test to start second half with Dodgers coming to town
Enrique Hernandez of the Los Angeles Dodgers is caught stealing second base by Anthony Volpe of the Yankees in Game 3 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium on Oct. 28, 2024. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers played in the 2024 World Series, a five-game victory for the Dodgers that gave them the first of their back-to-back titles.
The “rematch’’ came May 30-June 1, 2025, at Dodger Stadium. The Yankees lost the first two games before avoiding a sweep.
But this weekend, starting Friday night as the second half of the season begins, marks the first time Yankees fans will see the Dodgers at Yankee Stadium since that memorable World Series Game 5 collapse.
It was Oct. 30, 2024, an unseasonably warm 67-degree night in the Bronx.
Trailing 3-1 in the series but coming off an 11-4 victory in Game 4, the Yankees coasted into the fifth inning with a 5-0 lead and Gerrit Cole on the mound. A return to Dodger Stadium with some momentum for Game 6 seemed a lock.
What followed, as few Yankees fans could ever forget, was a disastrous top of the fifth that should have been accompanied by the theme music from the old “Benny Hill Show.”
By the end of the frame — which featured centerfielder Aaron Judge dropping a routine fly ball, shortstop Anthony Volpe making a throwing error and Cole failing to cover first base on a potential inning-ending grounder to Anthony Rizzo that should have preserved the five-run lead — the Dodgers had scored five unearned runs after two were out and tied the score at 5-5.
The Yankees again went ahead, but the Dodgers wound up with a 7-6 win that allowed them to celebrate their championship on the Stadium infield.
“I think falling short in the World Series will stay with me until I die,” a somber Judge said that night in the silence of the home clubhouse.
The stakes, of course, won’t be as high Friday night, when Cole is scheduled to oppose Roki Sasaki.
Still, the three-game series is intriguing for many reasons, not the least of which is it’s Yankees-Dodgers, a matchup that moves the needle for even the most casual of baseball fans.
And though there are miles to go between now and the postseason, it’s not a stretch to envision the two clubs getting together again in October for a true World Series rematch.
That potential showdown would follow a 2024 series that began with the Yankees getting Kirk Gibsoned in Game 1 by injured Freddie Freeman’s 10th-inning grand slam off Nestor Cortes and Bill Buckner-ing themselves in Game 5.
The Dodgers bring MLB’s best record (61-36) into the weekend. While they started slowly relative to expectations for a back-to-back champion, their current roster is considered even better than their previous two title teams.
The game’s biggest star, two-way phenom and annual National League MVP shoo-in Shohei Ohtani, is expected to be back as the Dodgers’ DH.
“He’s going to be in the lineup,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said before managing the National League in Tuesday night’s All-Star Game in Philadelphia.
Ohtani, hitting .293 with 22 homers and 58 RBIs — not to mention going 8-2 with a 1.79 ERA and striking out 95 in 85 1⁄3 innings in 14 starts — was scratched from his scheduled mound start last Friday because of knee inflammation.
In saying Ohtani will hit this weekend, Roberts wasn’t as clear about whether the four-time MVP will pitch for the first time since July 3.
“We haven’t decided that yet,” Roberts said.
Needless to say, regardless of whether Ohtani pitches, the Yankees will have their hands full.
They went into the All-Star break on an 8-14 skid, though they did win their final four games to move to 54-42. They are three games behind the AL East-leading Rays (who have the best overall record in the American League).
Among the narratives Yankees manager Aaron Boone has liked the least in recent years is the one that says his club struggles against the better teams on their schedule. The Yankees have gone 15-15 against teams that, at the moment, are .500 or better.
Beating an outstanding team is a tall task to start the second half, but it’s something that won’t end when the two-time defending champions leave town. This weekend kicks off a stretch of seven straight series against such teams (after the Dodgers come the Pirates, Phillies, White Sox, Cubs, Cardinals and Atlanta).
That stretch takes the Yankees through Aug. 9, meaning Judge, who last played on May 31 because of a rib stress fracture, isn’t likely to be back for any of those games. His best-case scenario for a return remains around mid-August (and even that isn’t assured).
Giancarlo Stanton, Carlos Rodon and Max Fried, also on the injured list, aren’t guaranteed to be back for many of those games — if any — either.
So yes, the Dodgers are quite the test coming out of the break for the Yankees — but they’re far from the only one.
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
