2024 World Series: Top 4 takeaways from Dodgers' 4-2 win in Game 2
- by Fox News
- Oct 27, 2024
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LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers have stormed ahead to a 2-0 World Series lead after winning the first two games at home. The Yankees' offense was all but shut down by Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2, which also featured an injury scare for Shohei Ohtani after he was caught stealing second base in the seventh inning.
Here are our top four takeaways from the Dodgers' 4-2 win Saturday.
1. Aaron Judge's disappearing act
It's extremely difficult to believe the Yankees will force this World Series to go the distance, much less win, without the MVP version of Judge. For the second straight day, the Dodgers' starting pitcher completely neutralized Judge's bat. Game 1 starter Jack Flaherty and Game 2 starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto combined to strike out Judge five times in six at-bats and didn't allow him to reach base. Yamamoto especially looked confident facing the player who recorded the highest OPS (1.159) in baseball this season.
Judge is now 1 for 9 with six strikeouts in the Fall Classic. He's 6-for-40 in this postseason with 19 strikeouts to accompany just two home runs and six RBIs. Within the span of a few weeks, he's gone from being the best hitter in the universe to waving at offspeed pitches like he's an automatic out.
The Yankees have had a hard time publicly admitting that Judge is missing pitches in the postseason that he would normally get to. Whether it's the long layoff before the playoffs began or the break between the ALCS and the World Series, it seems entirely plausible that the lack of everyday at-bats and games have messed up Judge's timing. That could be why he finally broke out in Game 3 of the ALCS against the Guardians with a game-tying two-run home run off star closer Emmanuel Clase. If Judge just needs time to warm up, then he could have a huge week ahead of him when the Series goes to the Bronx on Monday. With a championship on the line, the Yankees can only hope that's the case. — Deesha Thosar
2. Time to give Tommy Edman his flowers
Turns out Edman's MVP performance in the Dodgers' NLCS against the Mets wasn't a fluke. Los Angeles' Swiss-army knife has picked up right where he left off, going 4-for-8 with two runs scored and an RBI in the World Series so far. His latest trick was a solo shot to left field off Carlos Rodón in the second inning to put the Dodgers on the board.
Edman hadn't even played this season when Andrew Friedman traded for him this summer. The Dodgers needed an infielder at the time, knowing that they didn't want to play Mookie Betts at shortstop anymore, while factoring in that Gavin Lux and Kiké Hernandez are not everyday players. There was real risk in making him the lone position-player addition at the deadline. Nobody really knew how Edman would play after his offseason wrist surgery, which included a setback in spring training. While his performance in August and September was serviceable, Edman has been huge for the Dodgers in October.
Not only is he showing up at the plate, but the former Gold Glover has seamlessly shifted between shortstop and center field from game to game. While his name won't often come up on a team full of superstars, he's been a huge coup for the Dodgers — and he could be an enormous factor in them winning the whole thing. — Thosar
3. The Carlos Rodón roller-coaster continues
Given the southpaw's turbulence this postseason, the Yankees had to know there was a fat chance that Rodón would unravel the way he did on Saturday. Aaron Boone and the Yankees' decision-makers are just as responsible for this poor outing as the left-hander himself is. Rodón took the mound for Game 2 having surrendered seven earned runs over his previous three playoff starts (14.1 innings) this October. He spiraled against the Royals in the ALDS, then course-corrected in his first outing of the ALCS, only to struggle again in the clincher versus Cleveland.
On Saturday, he surrendered home runs to Edman, Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernández by the third inning and was pulled in the fourth.
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