Yankees Drop Two Games to Dodgers In Early Pennant Test
This past weekend two historical franchises took the field in a battle of baseball supremacy. The Los Angeles Dodgers came into the Bronx and took two of three games against the shorthanded New York Yankees. Two of the most prestigious teams in baseball took the field in the Bronx for the first time since 2016 and for two of the three games they were nothing short of classics.
The Yankees offense struggled mightily without their left-handed superstar Juan Soto who has been dealing with tightness in his left forearm. The Bronx Bombers were held to just one run over 11 innings of baseball in game one, and only three the following day at the hands of an abysmal 11-3 loss that saw Oswaldo Cabrera take the mound in the 9th inning. With opportunities in both games for Juan Soto to come off the bench as a pinch hitter to make an impact on either game, the Yankees decided to play it safe and let the superstar have time to heal.
Game three was an absolute classic, for a game at the beginning of June. The Yankees took an early 2-0 lead thanks to an Oswaldo Cabrera solo home run off the right field foul pole in the third inning. Judge doubled in Verdugo later that inning to give the Yankees their second run. The Dodgers answered in the 5th with a two-out, two-run Mookie Betts double and then took the lead with a solo home run by Yankee killer, Teoscar Hernandez in the 6th.
In the bottom half of the 6th, the Yankees had a chance to pinch-hit Soto again for Trent Grisham. During the at-bat the fans at the stadium started chanting “We want Soto” but a few pitches later, Grisham took Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow deep to right field for a three-run home run, it had the stadium feeling and looking like a game in October.
The Yankees added another run thanks to an Aaron Judge league-leading 24th homerun in the 8th to help the Yankees seal the victory 6-4.
With the Yankees able to save their three-game series set with a classic game on Sunday night, are they still the cream of the crop? It’s hard to say definitively because this series was played without one of baseball’s premier players and they lost the series, but it is safe to say that the Yankees offense certainly needs Soto in it if they want to be considered the best team in baseball. The Yankees have some big needs to address in the infield, and the bullpen but with Soto expected back tonight they certainly must be mentioned as arguably the best team in baseball, and reinforcements (Gerrit Cole, Jason Dominguez) are on the way.
