NEW YORK — Before a do-or-die Game 4 at Yankee Stadium, Jazz Chisholm considered wearing Timberlands on the field for batting practice. They were gifted to the team by outfielder Alex Verdugo, who “just wanted to do something cool for the guys.”
In the first three games of the World Series, the Yankees’ offense that had hit more homers and taken more free passes than any team in baseball looked like a shell of itself. When Freddie Freeman delivered another blast in the first inning in Game 4, he had scored more runs during the series than in any New York game.
The Yankees entered Tuesday night with seven runs in three games and only four hits with runners in scoring position. They looked tough. Verdugo, whose ninth-inning homer the night before provided his only runs in Game 3, wanted to loosen things up. Well, that, and he “felt like Timberlands just felt New York” and “wanted to get some steppin’ shoes for the boys.”
“My thing was more about giving them that, giving them something that’s going to be easy,” Verdugo said.
Whether the gift helped at all, or the Yankees offense simply enjoyed seeing the Dodgers bullpen put on a show of their inferior arms, the team ended up going 11-4.
The change in attitude was part of the equation.
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“The situation we were in, I think we just needed to say, ‘Scroll,’ and go after it and have fun because some guys might not get back to the World Series,” catcher Austin Wells said. “So, I’m enjoying the game, I think that allowed us to play a little more loose tonight.”
Anthony Volpe’s grand slam, which finally gave Yankee Stadium reason to erupt, didn’t hurt. Wells said he thinks that hit allows the rest of the players to breathe a little more.
It also forced Dodger manager Dave Roberts to think long term. He hit all the way, the same way he did in Game 2 of the NLCS when the Mets jumped ahead of the bullpen game, to not overwork the over-confident relievers or let the opposition see them. a game they weren’t going to take anyway. It worked.
The danger of that decision on Tuesday is that it will help the struggling Yankees hitting team to come out and gain confidence.
Wells, who was 4-for-43 to start the postseason and was awarded the last game, went three innings after Volpe’s home run. A five-run blast followed in the eighth, when Gleyber Torres put the game away with the Yankees’ third home run of the night.
A Yankees offense that had not scored more than three runs in a game during the series came up with nine hits and six free passes against a medley of Dodgers relievers. The bottom of the lineup provided a spark, but eight of the nine players on the lineup reached base. Perhaps most encouragingly for the Yankees, Aaron Judge showed promising signs, reaching base four times and knocking in his final run of the game.
“When he’s on his feet, I feel like everybody goes,” Chisholm said.
The World Series has gone 11 consecutive years without a sweep. The Yankees woke up to run that streak to 12. The 11-run fusillade is tied for second-most by a club facing elimination from the World Series.
The offensive style that got them to the World Series finally proved to help them keep their season alive.
“Knowing that this was the last guaranteed day of baseball this season, I didn’t want to take it for granted and I wanted to enjoy the moment,” Wells said. “I think if you put too much pressure on this, like, on them … you’re going to fail yourself, and you’re not going to enjoy the trip.”
That trip will now continue on Thursday, when the Yankees should feel good about their chances of taking the series back to Los Angeles.
If they can do that, they will make history in the program. The Yankees are the 25th team to face a 3-0 deficit in the World Series. 21 of the last 24 teams to face that point have been swept. The other three lost in Game 5.
But the other three were without Gerrit Cole on the mound.
“Every time G goes out there, we feel like we’re in a good place,” Chisholm said. “He’s like the best pitcher in the world. You see him out there, you see confidence.”
Cole allowed just one run and four baserunners in six innings to start the streak. He took the lead in the game that ended with the stick of Freeman, who has made a name for himself in every game in this series. Freeman followed those late-game heroics with a solo homer in Game 2, then silenced the Yankees crowd with a two-run shot that drained the infield in Game 3.
When Freeman did the same thing again in Game 4, setting a major league record with a home run in his sixth consecutive World Series game, it seemed like he brought the magic to the Yankees’ season.
However, this time they responded.
The 2004 Red Sox are the only MLB team to rally from a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series, when they did so against the Yankees in the American League Championship Series.
But the Yankees, who have three more games to play for their lives, aren’t thinking that far ahead. Anthony Rizzo, whose 2016 World Series champion, the Cubs went 3-1 in the World Series — where the Yankees now find themselves — knows the dangers of that.
“It was just about getting to Game 6,” Rizzo said. “We knew Game 5 was going to be tough.”
If the offense that showed up Wednesday shows up again, especially with Cole on the mound, the Yankees have a real chance to extend the streak. Even if they can’t wear Timberlands when they hit.
“We have to focus on, ‘Win another game,'” Judge said. “We’ll look up and see what happens.”
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the LA Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, raised in Texas, and returned to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
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