Moving the 2024 World Series to Yankee Stadium for Game 3 hasn't slowed the Los Angeles Dodgers down one bit.
Freddie Freeman led LA by homering for the third consecutive game, and Walker Buehler and the Dodgers' bullpen combined to silence the New York Yankees' offense again.
How did the Dodgers push the Yankees to the brink of elimination, and is there any hope left for the home team in Game 4? We've covered everything from updates and analysis during the game to takeaways after the final pitch and what's next for each team.
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takeaway
Los Angeles Dodgers 4, New York Yankees 2
Dodgers: The Yankees were believed to have the starting pitching advantage in this series. The Dodgers have completely destroyed it. Walker Buehler pitched five scoreless innings in Game 3 on Monday night – Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed only one run in 6⅓ innings in Game 2 and Jack Flaherty allowed two runs in 5⅓ innings in Game 1. The trio combined to have a 1.62 ERA, the lowest by a team's first three starters in a World Series since Cleveland in 2016.
Of the three, Buehler was perhaps the most uncertain. He returned from a second Tommy John surgery in the middle of the year, struggled through a 5.38 ERA in 16 regular season starts, and seemed to have lost his tremendous fastball.
But he got an effective curveball against the New York Mets in the National League Championship Series and finally got his live fastball back on Monday night. The Dodgers are now one win away from their first championship in four years and their first full season title since 1988. At the most critical juncture, starting pitching has gone from the Dodgers' greatest uncertainty to one of their greatest strengths. And their biggest concern, the overall health of first baseman and No. 3 hitter Freddy Freeman, doesn't seem to be going well at all. – Alden Gonzalez
Yankees: The Yankees are suffering a 3–0 series loss as their offense, led by their potential American League MVP, is missing. On Monday, New York had four hits, five walks and a standing ovation from the home crowd. Giancarlo Stanton went 2-for-4; The rest of the team finished 3rd out of 27. Aaron Judge went 0-for-3 with a strikeout and a walk, bringing his series total to 1-for-12 with seven strikeouts. Stanton's double in the fourth inning on Monday was New York's only extra-base hit. The Yankees went 1-for-4 with runners in scoring position and left eight runners on base. His rallies ended with a questionable sendout (Stanton was thrown out at home in the fourth inning) and a questionable strike three call (Gleyber Torres took a pitch above the strike zone with two runners on base in the seventh inning) Were. This much is certain: The Yankees, who have managed to score seven runs in this series, are one more quiet night away from a loss. –Jorge Castillo
Big question for Game 4: Is it really going to be a sweep? While oddsmakers favored the Dodgers in this series, it was by a slim margin, and evaluators saw it as close to a coin toss. In three games, the Dodgers have shut down the Yankees hitters so well that Los Angeles taking the crown feels like an inevitability.
Entering this series, MLB teams have led 3–0 in the series 40 times. Thirty-one of them ended in sweeps. The Yankees can only hope that Luis Gil performs and pitches better than Carlos Rodon and Clark Schmidt in Games 2 and 3. And yet, given how New York's offense has performed in this series, the possibility of Los Angeles going with an all-bullpen for Tuesday's game doesn't seem as damaging.
The only baseball team to come back from being down 3–0 in a best-of-seven series is the 2004 Boston Red Sox – against the Yankees. What New York needs right now is a miracle. The way the Yankees are playing, it's hard to imagine what that would look like. — Jeff Passan