While Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series was the most important play of the series, it was the New York Yankees’ lack of fundamentals that ultimately cost them the championship against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In fact, both of the Dodgers’ runs before Freeman’s home run in Game 1 were scored as a direct result of mistakes by the Yankees’ defense.
A slight misplay by Juan Soto in right field allowed the Dodgers to score their first run of the game in the fifth inning. Later, a sloppy exchange between Soto and Anthony Volpe enabled Mookie Betts to tie the game in the eighth inning.
The other infamous moments from the fifth inning of Game 5 were the final nails in the coffin for the Yankees, who had already dug themselves a massive hole throughout the series.
The Dodgers’ scouting report on the Yankees is well documented at this point and Miguel Rojas discussed what made New York so vulnerable, during his appearance on the “Chris Rose Rotation” show:
“Then when we got to the Yankees and we started to prepare for them in our scouting report meeting before the series, we found their weakness. Their weakness was the way they make outs on the bases, the way that they didn’t take care of the baseball and play a little bit of lazy defense.
“So we said, ‘OK, we know we’re good. But we’re going to put pressure on them to make little mistakes.’ That’s the reason why they bobble balls, is because they know we’re going to be running hard. We’re going to be taking extra bases, take a little extra primary lead at first base. When certain pitchers are on the mound, we know what they do. We know how fast they are to the plate and how we’re going to put pressure.
“We know how many errors there were in the infield when they felt the pressure and had to rush. We had all those videos. We know how good or bad they throw to bases. That’s why we were prepared for them and we knew their weakness. We knew they were a good team and played hot baseball with the bat, but the fundamentals of the game, I think we could be better, and that was the difference in the series.”
The Dodgers were extremely fortunate that the Yankees handed them the opportunity to come back in Game 5, especially given how the momentum appeared to be shifting. Even with Yoshinobu Yamamoto set to pitch and a day off before Game 6, the Dodgers would have been navigating an overworked bullpen.
There was also the looming possibility of being on the wrong side of history, as Dodgers manager Dave Roberts acknowledged after the fact.
Roberts admitted that he had a very real fear of the series moving back to Los Angeles for Game 6 due to the immense pressure that would have been on his team.
Miguel Rojas games during 2024 World Series
After prematurely exiting the National League Division Series and missing out entirely on the NL Championship Series because of aggravating his sports hernia, Rojas was healthy enough to play through the injury and be placed back on the Dodgers’ World Series roster.
However, Rojas only appeared in one game against the Yankees., going hitless in three at-bats. Because of how well Tommy Edman was filling in at shortstop and Kiké Hernández playing center field, the Dodgers didn’t need to push Rojas through his injury.
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