Can the Yankees turn one win into two? Plus a new women's baseball league

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The Yankees emphatically refused to go gently into that good night. They’re not dead yet and neither is the 2024 baseball season – that’s me Levi Weaverhere with Ken Rosenthal. Welcome to The Windup!

About Last Night: New York avoids sweep in Game 4

Yankees 11, Dodgers 4: Last night's first inning seemed to follow the same script as the first three games. Freddie Freeman hit another home run (he now holds the record alone, with home runs in six straight World Series games), and the Dodgers had another early lead.

Things got worse in the bottom half of the inning when a fan tried to rip a foul ball out of Mookie Betts' glove. Not the Yankees' fault, of course. But the mood was just everywhere… bad.

But the tide turned at the end of the fourth quarter when the Dodgers turned to Daniel Hudson to keep the lead in a bullpen game. Anthony Volpe – the hometown boy who dreamed of playing for the Yankees as a kid – brought the Bronx faithful to their feet with a grand slam. At 5-2, it was the Yankees' first lead in the series since then other Grand Slam, Freeman's walk-off in Game 1. (Now it's time for World Series Grand Slam Trivia by Jayson Stark.)

The Dodgers rallied to come up short in the fifth, scoring twice and making it a one-run game 5-4, but from that point on it was all the Yankees. The one insurance run in the sixth would have been enough, but after struggling at the plate for so long in this series, it's hard to blame them for going one better in the eighth, scoring five runs to make it 11-4. to reach the final.

Not only was it an incredibly magical moment for Volpe, it also made history: He became the first player in World Series history to record four RBIs and two stolen bases in a game.

Ken's notebook: “White Sox name new manager”.

Some news from last night: According to a Major League source, the White Sox are hiring Will Venable as their manager.

Venable comes to Chicago from Texas, where he served as an associate manager to the Rangers' Bruce Bochy for the past two years and won the World Series in 2023. Venable played nine MLB seasons for the Rangers, Padres and Dodgers as an outfielder starting in 2008 through 2016.

The White Sox fired manager Pedro Grifol in August after a record-setting 21-game losing streak. Meanwhile, Grady Sizemore took over and finished with a 13-32 lead, but general manager Chris Getz said in August that the current team staff would not be considered for the full-time manager job.

“I think it's important to bring a new voice, a fresh voice that might have exposure to areas of this game that we don't have in our organization right now,” Getz said at the time. “I’m really excited to learn more about some of these people. Then we will make it to the finish line and name the next manager.”

The White Sox finished the 2024 season 41-121, setting the record for most losses in modern baseball history.

Pitching Probabilities: Flaherty vs. Cole in Game 5

So now it's a pitching rematch from Game 1 as Jack Flaherty and Gerrit Cole face off in Game 5 tonight. A quick recap of the first matchup:

• Cole: 6 IP, 4 hits, 1 run, 0 walks, 4 strikeouts
• Flaherty: 5 1/3 IP, 5 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk, 6 strikeouts

That's a small advantage for Cole – one that only gets bigger when you look at her career postseason stats.

• Cole: 21 games, 11-6, 2.91 ERA, 150 strikeouts, 32 walks in 126 2/3 innings
• Flaherty: 9 games, 2-5, 4.73 ERA, 45 strikeouts, 17 walks, 45 2/3 innings

It's still very unlikely that the Yankees will become the first team to overcome a 3-0 deficit and win a World Series. Last night they looked like the better team for the first time in four games, and in a bullpen game at that. So let's not get ahead of ourselves.

But if the Yankees want a chance to turn a series of underwhelming performance into something interesting, Cole is the guy you want on the mound. He wants also be on the hill. Do you remember 2019? Cole didn't appear in the decisive Game 7 – which makes sense considering he had thrown seven innings for the Astros just three days earlier.

The Nationals won that game 6-2, scoring all of their runs in the final three innings. Cole left the stadium wearing a Boras Corp cap. and was reportedly upset that he warmed up but had no chance to protect the 2-0 lead after six innings.

It's not a decisive point, but Cole will finally get the chance to stave off his opponent's champagne celebration tonight. Either way, the Dodgers are heading back to LA. Cole is the Yankees' best chance to book their own flight.

First pitch takes place at 8:08 p.m. ET (watch on Fox or Fubo).

Big Deals: A (new) league of its own?

Really exciting news today: The Women's Pro Baseball League announced that it plans to begin play in 2026. The league plans to start with six teams, and while the cities have not yet been announced, they will all be based in the Northeast United States.

There is currently no other women's professional baseball league, although leagues have existed in the past – most famously the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which inspired a documentary, film and television series entitled “One League for themselves”.

The announcement follows “See Her Be Her,” a documentary about women’s baseball that premiered Sunday on MLB Network.

It's another exciting step forward for women's sports following a “transformational” WNBA season and the announcement this week that the Professional Women's Hockey League plans to expand its six-team league – perhaps as early as next year. Add in the growing audience for other women's sports like soccer, gymnastics and track and field, and it's time for baseball to get on board, too.

Remarkable: There was no professional women's baseball leaguethere is a professional player. Earlier this year, Kelsie Whitmore became the first woman to start in the Pioneer League with the Oakland Ballers. It is not yet known whether Whitmore will play in the new WPBL, but we will be sure to keep you updated on developments.

Handshakes and high fives

Maybe you've noticed, but there is one much the camera angle at this year's World Series. Evan Drellich is ahead more than 40 camera angles used.

A little over a year ago, Andrew Bailey took over as Red Sox pitching coach. How does he feel about his first season in this role?

Most clicked in yesterday's newsletter: Ken's glowing column about Aaron Judge and the Yankees' reality check.

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(Top photo: Robert Deutsch / Imagn Images)