Can the Yankees save the World Series against the Dodgers?

LOS ANGELES – The New York Yankees entered the World Series playing like dogs and played like dogs in the first two games. Beating the Los Angeles Dodgers requires strong form, clean execution and the ability to rise to the moment. The Yankees collapsed, stumbled and bungled. They look like an American League team in a National League world. And unless New York figures out how to resurrect the best version of itself, this dream World Series will be over in time for kids in Yankees uniforms to go trick-or-treating with paper bags over their heads.

The Yankees appeared overwhelmed for most of Saturday night's second game, a 4-2 Dodgers victory that gave Los Angeles a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. They scored one hit in the first eight innings. The postseason disappearance of their captain led to three more strikeouts. Their apparent starting pitching advantage melted away when three home runs were allowed. And it led to them having to do what few others could do. Of the 54 teams that started the World Series with a two-game deficit, only 10 recovered to win a ring.

“Nobody said it was going to be easy,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “It's a long series and we have to make it a long series now. We won't shy away. We just have to keep at it.”

Staying on track requires numerous corrections, all of which are possible. Doing that in the blink of an eye, against a team as complete as the Dodgers, requires “urgency, will, courage,” Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. “We have to want it to happen.”

Rizzo understands this better than anyone in the Yankees clubhouse. In 2016, his Chicago Cubs trailed Cleveland by three games to one before winning their first championship in 108 years. One untimely mistake could have derailed their season. A flawed pitch. An uncompetitive shot. Teams that dig holes for themselves eliminate their margin for error. It's hard enough to beat the Dodgers. Doing this with self-inflicted wounds won't work.

It starts with Aaron Judge, the best batsman in the world, who has hit rock bottom at the worst possible time. In the first two games of the World Series, Judge swung the bat 24 times. He missed 14 of those swings and struck out six times on nine shots. His OPS this October is .605, more than 500 points shy of his MLB-best 1.159 in the regular season. He pushes, desperately trying to find the momentum that has carried the Yankees through a season with more ups than downs.

“I need to step up,” Judge said, and that’s true. For all of Juan Soto's greatness – and this October has shown just how great he is – he and Giancarlo Stanton can't be the only Yankees who pose a constant threat. Twice this postseason, teams have opted to intentionally walk Soto to face Judge, and if Judge doesn't shorten his strike zone and correct his swing, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts will have an incentive to continue doing so. Throw Judge pivots – 10 of the 14 swings and misses came on curveballs, sliders and sweepers – and continues to win.

At the same time, Judge isn't the only New York hitter coming up short. The Yankees lose because they are allergic to contact. The Yankees swung 147 pitches and missed 52 times. The Dodgers swung 133 pitches in the first two games and missed just 24. This is the crucial statistic of the first two games, especially considering how comparatively rarely the Yankees did this in their first two rounds against Kansas City and Cleveland: 601 swings, 154 misses.

It's not just about the Yankees' offense waking up. They also need better pitching. And for Game 3, that falls to starter Clarke Schmidt. “I’m not trying to go out and be a hero,” Schmidt said, and while he’s right that trying to play hero ball is a road to nowhere, a savior has to show up somewhere.

With Shohei Ohtani cleared for Game 3 (he suffered a subluxation of his left shoulder during a steal attempt late in Game 2), the Dodgers can stock their lineup with lefties to take advantage of mistakes made by a righty whose arsenal runs almost entirely on the glove side. Schmidt's cutter-slider curveball-heavy array features no changes to keep hitters honest and the Dodgers' ability to turn away pitches – they fouled 39.1% of their swings in the World Series compared to the Yankees' 29, 9% – makes any pitcher vulnerable.

As if that wasn't enough to remedy the situation, the Yankees must do all of that while avoiding the mistakes that doomed them in Game 1. No more misplayed balls in the outfield. No more kicking the ball or allowing the Dodgers to take extra bases. No baserunning follies that give away outs.

“I feel like we played really good baseball,” said Yankees third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. “The guys still have great confidence on the field, and we still have great confidence in our pitching, so I feel like we’re just going to go home and feed off the energy of the audience.”

Here's the reality: The Yankees haven't really played good baseball. They were okay, and okay isn't enough to beat the Dodgers. Championships demand absolute excellence, from the batter's box to the pitcher's mound to the field to the dugout, where Boone's decision-making can mean the difference between a ring and a bare finger.

His decision to call left-hander Nestor Cortes to pitch 10^Th The inning of Game 1 preceded Game 2. Boone stood by his decision to go with Cortes, whose stubborn left arm had kept him out for more than five weeks before he hit Freddie Freeman's walk-off grand slam against the lefty Tim Hill, who did this, was one of the Yankees' best relievers. If there was one regret, Boone said, it was that he didn't stick with closer Luke Weaver, who needed just 19 pitches to earn five outs to secure a 3-2 lead.

In the ninth inning of Game 2, the Yankees finally came to life, hitting three singles off Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen and loading the bases with one out and a two-run deficit. Then Anthony Volpe struck, swinging a Treinen sweeper almost a foot above the plate. And pinch-hitter Jose Trevino, who had a platoon advantage against left-hander Alex Vesia, threw a fly ball to center field for the 27^Th out of.

“I liked the at-bats at the end,” Boone said. “The competition, the fight.”

It was too little, too late, and now the Yankees are in a precarious position. They were the best team in the AL for six months. They cruised through the first two rounds, beating teams whose payroll was only a third of their size. The Dodgers are not the Royals and the Guardians. They are a machine and have handed the Yankees as many losses in two games as New York did in the rest of October combined.

The Dodgers are not infallible either. San Diego brought Los Angeles to the brink of elimination. The New York Mets needed two games against them. The Dodgers' Game 3 starter Walker Buehler hasn't pitched since Oct. 16, they're poised to host a relievers-only Game 4, and the Yankee Stadium crowd is sure to energize New York. The path to a balanced series is there. This is the Yankees' first World Series since 2009, and they are in danger of failing spectacularly. You can win. They can convince Soto that he needs to spend the rest of his career in the Bronx. They can cement Judge's legacy. You can capture their 28^Th Championship.

All they need is to back up their season-long bark with some World Series grit.