2024 World Series

2024 World Series

New York Yankees 94 - 68 in the AL	0 - 0 Series Summary	Los Angeles Dodgers 98 - 64 in the NL

Overview[edit]

The 2024 World Series featured a glamorous marquee match-up, with the Los Angeles Dodgers facing the New York Yankees. This was the 12th time the two franchises met in the World Series - the most frequent postseason match-up of any two teams - but the first since 1981 - before any of the players taking the field had been born. Back then the two teams had met three times in a five-year span, and fans outside the two cities were clearly tired of the repeated get-togethers ("The Dodgers and Yankees only play the regular season to find out who will have home field advantage in the World Series" was how one satirist put it), but it was much different this time. This was a match-up that everyone wanted to see.

Not only were the two teams the top finishers in their respective league - a distinct rarity since MLB added a second wild card team to the postseason mix - but they also featured the two consensus favorites for the MVP Award in Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani, who also happened to have led their league in home runs. There were also five former MVP Award winners taking part, with Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts and Giancarlo Stanton, in addition to the two previously named, and another true superstar in Juan Soto (by almost all metrics, Ohtani, Judge and Soto had been the top three hitters in the majors that season). All in all, there was enough there to attract even the most casual of baseball fans - and television ratings for earlier rounds of the postseason had already reflected that. And that's not even counting the frenzy the Series would cause in Japan! On a sadder note, the Series opened just a few days after the passing of Fernando Valenzuela, one of the most charismatic players in Dodgers history, and still a Spanish-language broadcaster for the team; he had been one of the stars as a chubby 20-year-old in 1981, another reminder of how much time had gone by since.

The Teams[edit]

Managers: : Yankees: Aaron Boone | Dodgers: Dave Roberts

Yankees After missing the postseason altogether in 2023, the Yankees had made one huge acquisition in the off-season, acquiring slugging OF Juan Soto via trade to provide some protection to team captain Aaron Judge, who was often the only threat in their line-up before that. The two had clicked immediately, with Judge hitting .322 with 58 homers and 144 RBIs, while Soto hit .288 with 41 homers and 109 RBIs. Teams had responded to the double threat by pitching around the two, as their 133 and 129 walks respectively bore witness, but they also both scored over 120 runs, so there was a downside to just walking them. Installed in the number 2 and 3 spots in the batting order, they formed a terrifying gauntlet for opposing pitchers. Filling out the other spots in the order had been more problematic: after various experiments, the Yankees had settled on 2B Gleyber Torres to lead off, and he had done well enough (.330 OBP with 80 runs) but a more prototypical lead-off hitter could have created chaos, and Torres had seemed to understand that in the postseason, just trying to get on base instead of trying to hit for power. The clean-up spot was another issue. Rookie catcher Austin Wells had occupied the spot late in the season, hitting .229 with 13 homers and 55 RBIs, but he had wilted under the pressure of the postseason, and DH Giancarlo Stanton and 3B Jazz Chisholm had replaced him at times. Stanton had had an underwhelming season by his standards, hitting .233 with 27 homers, but had found his stroke in the postseason, while Chisholm had taken to the Big Apple like a fish to water, hitting .273 with 11 homers in just 46 games, while learning a new position to boot. 1B Anthony Rizzo (.228 with 8 homers and 35 RBIs) was clearly on the downside of his career and coming off a serious hand injury that had forced him to miss the Division Series, while SS Anthony Volpe and LF Alex Verdugo, who normally occupied the final two spots in the order, were both inconsistent, but capable of doing damage when on a hot streak. The bench was pretty thin however.

On the pitching side, the Yankees were one of the few teams to enter the postseason with four healthy starters: Gerrit Cole (8-5, 3.41, after missing the first half of the season to an injury); Carlos Rodón (16-9, 3.96); Clarke Schmidt (5-5, 2.85 also in a half-season) and Luis Gil (15-7, 3.50). Since then, Nestor Cortes (9-10, 3.77) had been added to the World Series roster after a late-season injury, so the Yankees had actually more starters than they needed (without even counting Marcus Stroman). The bullpen was a lot thinner, however: Luke Weaver (7-3, 2.89) had done well since taking over the closer job from Clay Holmes (3-5, 3.14, 30 saves), but neither was a sure thing. After that, it got dicey, although Tommy Kahnle (0-2, 2.11) had pitched well, and Tim Hill (3-0, 2.05) was an effective LOOGY. But the more the Yankees could get from their starters, the better off they would be. Manager Aaron Boone was in his first World Series, but in the postseason for six times in seven years, so he was unlikely to be overwhelmed by the setting either - and he had also played in the Fall Classic.

Dodgers The Dodgers had made a number of acquisitions before the season, the principal being the signing of free agent DH Shohei Ohtani to a monster contract. Unable to pitch while recovering from Tommy John surgery, he had just completed a mind-boggling season with the bat, hitting .310 with 54 homers, 134 runs and 130 RBIs from the lead-off spot, and also stealing 59 bases while being caught only 4 times. The first player to have a 50-50 season, he was the most popular baseball player on the planet. Next came RF Mookie Betts, who had actually started the season playing SS just because the team had a hole there; he had missed time with a broken wrist but still hit .289 with 19 homers and 75 RBIs. Following him was 1B Freddie Freeman (.282, 22, 89) who was still hobbled by a bad ankle sprain and had had to miss some postseason games as a result. LF Teoscar Hernandez, another free agent signing, hit .272 with 33 homers and 99 RBIs principally as the clean-up hitter. The rest of the order was considered less fearsome, but it still featured some excellent hitters in 3B Max Muncy (15 homers and 48 RBIs in 73 games, and an OBP of .358) and C Will Smith (.248, 20, 75), and some players with a knack of contributing in the postseason, like Kiké Hernandez and Tommy Edman, who could both play the infield and the outfield. Another wild card was 2B Gavin Lux, once one of the most promising prospects in baseball, but limited to a .251 average with 10 homers and 50 RBIs during the season after missing all of 2023 to an injury. The Dodgers also had more depth than the Yankees, with seasoned veterans like Chris Taylor and Kevin Kiermaier, still an outstanding defensive outfielder, and young Andy Pages all available to help out in various ways.

The Dodgers' big Achilles heel was starting pitching. In effect, they had two-and-half starting pitchers: Jack Flaherty (6-2, 3.58 with L.A. and 13-7, 3.17 overall), a trading deadline acquisition who had become the team's ace by default; Yoshinobu Yamamoto (7-2, 3.00), paid to pitch like an ace by still finding his footing in MLB; and Walker Buehler (1-6, 5.38), still working his way back from Tommy John surgery and only a shadow of what he had been back in the days of the 2020 World Series. In olden times, the Dodgers would have used an unproven youngster like Landon Knack (3-5, 3.65) for the fourth spot, and hoped for the best, but in this postseason, they had gone to a bullpen game every time that spot had come up. The reason for this weakened corps of starters was a very well appointed injured list featuring luminaries like Clayton Kershaw, Tyler Glasnow, Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin, Gavin Stone, Bobby Miller and others, not to mention Julio Urias, whose career had been brutally stopped by domestic violence allegations in 2023. Had those been available, the Dodgers would have been a juggernaut on the mound. Now however they had to rely on a very capable bullpen that featured a number of solid pitchers: Blake Treinen (7-3, 1.93); Daniel Hudson (6-2, 3,00, 10 saves); Evan Phillips (5-1, 3.62, 18 saves); Anthony Banda (3-2, 3.08); Michael Kopech (4-0, 1.13); and Ryan Brasier (1-0, 3.54). In addition, a trio of long men had given the team some good innings during the postseason. It consisted of Brent Honeywell, Ben Casparius and Enrique Hernandez; the latter two had only pitched three big league games each before the postseason, but had proved useful in spite of that very limited experience. Manager Dave Roberts was an old hand by now, being in his fourth World Series, and having won one in 2020, and also having been a member of the famous 2004 Boston Red Sox team that had broken that franchise's historic championship drought.

Umpires[edit]

Series results[edit]

Game	Score	Date	Starters	Time (ET)
1	New York Yankees 0 Los Angeles Dodgers 0	October 25	Gerrit Cole (0-0) Jack Flaherty (0-0)	8:08 pm
2	New York Yankees 0 Los Angeles Dodgers 0	October 26	Carlos Rodón (0-0) Yoshinobu Yamamoto (0-0)	8:08 pm
3	Los Angeles Dodgers 0 New York Yankees 0	October 28		8:08 pm
4	Los Angeles Dodgers 0 New York Yankees 0	October 29		8:08 pm