Yankees' Game 3 starter faces daunting task of reviving World Series: 'It's a must-win at this point'

Clarke Schmidt watched, but his eyes occasionally wandered. Schmidt sat at the other end of the New York Yankees dugout and watched the field and the game play. Then he looked around the sold-out Dodger Stadium. He looked at the lights and the scoreboard and the enormity of the World Series.

“Getting a feel for the atmosphere,” the Yankees right-hander said over the weekend, “getting a feel for the pace of the game and paying as much attention to little things as possible.”

For Schmidt, Games 1 and 2 were more than Yankees losses. They learned on the verge of a monumental task that had already been accomplished by people like Whitey Ford and Don Larsen; Johnny Podres and Fernando Valenzuela; Bret Saberhagen and Bob Ojeda; Ron Guidry and David Cone. Each of these pitchers were among those who successfully rescued their teams from the particular kind of doom the Yankees now face.

With these losses in LA, the Yankees became the 56th team in World Series history to fall 0-2 in a best-of-seven game. Only 10 of these teams have combined to win it all. If the Yankees want to be the 11th, Schmidt will have to endure the moment that will remain etched in the minds of those who have experienced it.

“It seems like it was yesterday when I saw the Dodgers win,” Steve Blass said Sunday afternoon, the memories flooding back as he watched this year’s Fall Classic. In the 1971 World Series, with his Pittsburgh Pirates down 2-0 in the series against the formidable Baltimore Orioles, Blass scored an absolute gem in Game 3. This began the kind of comeback the Yankees hope to make.

“Nobody said it was going to be easy,” 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 going.”

The 82-year-old Blass recalled having his face “ripped off” during a terrible NLCS against the San Francisco Giants in which he allowed nine runs over just seven innings in two starts. He didn't know if he would get another chance, but he remembered being “obsessed” with getting the ball again. One question was on his mind: “Am I good enough?”

“I said if I get the chance, I'll go back to being the pitcher I was – that's what got me to the big leagues,” said Blass, who knew what was at stake.

The math was as simple then as it is now: No team in World Series history has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit. “If you lose Game 3, you’re not going to win four in a row after that,” he said. “It was a game we literally had to win. And I played the game of my life.”

After that game, Blass' father jumped into the Pirates dugout and then onto the field. Just five days later, Blass threw another complete game and won Game 7, proving once again that a comeback was possible.

Now the Yankees need Schmidt to be next in line.

The 28-year-old Schmidt has been mostly reliable for the Yankees. He went 5-5 with a 2.85 ERA in 16 starts during the regular season, limited to one stint on the 60-day injured list due to a right lat strain. In Schmidt's two playoff starts, the Yankees won one and lost the other, although he went 4 2/3 innings each time and gave up two earned runs. He described the pressure that comes with his next assignment as merely “part of the game.”

“When we started, we knew we couldn’t really have any expectations,” he said. “Anything can happen in this game. Lost 1-0, lost 2-0, whatever the situation, we have to go out and win a ball game. We look forward to being back home in front of the crowd.”

When he needs motivation, Schmidt can fall back on his own franchise.

Of the Yankees' 27 World Series championships, four came by 0-2 at the start of a seven-game series. The first case occurred in 1956, when the Brooklyn Dodgers put themselves in position to win back-to-back victories in the Fall Classic, only for Whitey Ford to save the Yankees in Game 3. This happened again in 1958 when the Milwaukee Braves took advantage of the early advantage but fell short in seven games thanks to the heroics of the Yankees' Don Larsen in Game 3.

Or Schmidt could look back to 1978. That season, the Yankees found themselves in the exact same situation, losing 2-0 to the Dodgers in the World Series and suffering a tough loss in Los Angeles before a long flight back to the East Coast. Before the team took the field before Game 3, Thurman Munson called a brief team meeting on the field.

“When he started talking … it was something like, 'I wouldn't mind losing to the Dodgers,'” said then-Yankees pitcher Ron Guidry. “In itself, that gets your attention because you think he’s giving up. But what he meant to say was, 'I wouldn't mind losing to the Dodgers if they would just beat us.'” But we beat ourselves.'”

Thurman Munson and Ron Guidry after Game 3 of the 1978 World Series. (Heinz Klütmeier/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)

The Yankees immediately stopped beating themselves. Guidry, now 74, had a lot to do with it. He would win the AL Cy Young that year, and in Game 3 he looked like it. Before start, he recalled the words of Munson, who told his teammates that the Yankees could win the Series if Guidry could do his part. It played out exactly as the catcher had envisioned – Guidry allowed just one run in a complete game win and the Yankees wouldn't lose again en route to the championship.

It would take 18 years, but the Yankees' next title would come the same way.

In 1996, the Yankees lost their first two home games against the Braves before heading to Atlanta.

“We were embarrassed at home in the first two games and the general feeling was that we were outplayed by the Braves,” said former Yankees right-hander David Cone, who got the crucial Game 3 assignment. “Before, I was more determined than nervous at the beginning.”

That determination was evident as Cone lasted six innings, giving up just one run.

“We knew if we could win Game 3, that hope would be restored,” Cone said of a win that would create a dynasty. “The pressure was immense and every pitch counted. This game regained our pride.”

The Yankees could work to restore pride. The team's return to the game's biggest stage was rocky. The Yankees, playing in the World Series for the first time since 2009, suffered from on-field gaffes and an offense that was stymied thanks in part to the massive struggles of Aaron Judge. For the Yankees to have any hope of winning their first title in 15 years, a quick turnaround is needed.

In Los Angeles, Schmidt took in the sights and sounds of an epic World Series. Now, for the Yankees to survive, Schmidt must implement these lessons in Game 3.

“At this point, every game probably has to be won,” Schmidt said. “But we are two behind. We know we have to keep fighting and win the next game.”

(Top photo by Clarke Schmidt: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)