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The Yankees' errors in the fifth inning cost them their season

Posted on by Kennedy
The Yankees' errors in the fifth inning cost them their season

The New York Yankees were headed for a win in Game 5 on Wednesday night, looking to send the World Series back west with a two-game winning streak.

They were ahead by five runs and seemed to have taken the momentum in the series. They had their ace on the mound pitching just as well as he had all season. Hope grew in the Bronx.

Then it came to the fifth inning.

The Yankees made three big fielding errors to start the inning, opening the door for the Los Angeles Dodgers to come back and ultimately win the World Series. New York, leading 5-0, gave up five runs in an instantly infamous inning.

All five runs came with two outs. And all five runs were unearned for starter Gerrit Cole.

“We just took advantage of every mistake they made in that inning,” Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernández said after the game. “We put together some good batsmen. We put the ball in play. A lot of people say, ‘If you put the ball in play, things can happen.’ It happened to us in that inning and we scored five runs.”

Here's what happened.

After a single by Kiké Hernández – the Dodgers' first hit of the night – Tommy Edman hit a ball to center field that was dropped by Aaron Judge.

That put Edman in first place and Hernández in second place.

Then Will Smith hit a ground ball to short, but Anthony Volpe's throw bounced to Jazz Chisholm at third base. He couldn't sustain the force out and load the bases into Los Angeles with no one out.

Cole responded by eliminating Gavin Lux and Shohei Ohtani. All the fans in the Bronx breathed a sigh of relief. It appeared Cole escaped the inning without giving up a run.

But then Mookie Betts hit a grounder to first base that should have been an inning-ending grounder — except Anthony Rizzo was counting on Cole to cover the ball as he fielded the ball.

Cole never ran over, Betts reached him safely and the Dodgers were finally on the field.

After the Dodgers finally broke through after the three errors, World Series MVP Freddie Freeman came to the plate and hit a two-run single with the bases still loaded.

Then a two-run double by Teoscar Hernández one batter later tied the game.

Cole threw 38 pitches in the inning, faced 10 batters and allowed four hits.

Yes, the Yankees had five more hits to make up for their disastrous fifth hit.

However, if they had simply made a few routine plays on the field, they would almost certainly be headed to Los Angeles for Game 6.

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