Dodgers 0-3 Yankees, bottom 1st

Flaherty needs to settle down and get some outs, because another bullpen game is not ideal for the Dodgers moving forward.

Stanton hits a rope to center field – Hernandez slips, but gathers himself and makes the catch for the second out.

Rizzo is next.

HOME RUN! Dodgers 0-3 Yankees, bottom 1st

HOME RUN! Dodgers 0-2 Yankees, bottom 1st

Dodgers 0-0 Yankees, bottom 1st

Flaherty falls behind the slugger – it’s 3-0 to Soto before the righty sends in a strike.

Then Soto lays off a pitch low and away – that’s ball four! One on for Aaron Judge. Half a city expects!

Dodgers 0-0 Yankees, bottom 1st

OK, Cole did his thing, how about Flaherty?

He’s ahead on Torres 0-2 before planting a ball in the dirt. The 1-2 slider is bounced to second base – that’s routine for Lux who fires to first for the first out.

Now Juan Soto, in what could be his last game as a New York Yankee, steps into the batters box.

Dodgers 0-0 Yankees, top 1st

Freeman hits an opposite field fly ball that’s well short of the fence. Catch is made, side retired!

It’s a 1-2-3 inning with no high stress pitches for Cole. It’s exactly what he needed to come out and do.

Now here come the Yankees!

Dodgers 0-0 Yankees, top 1st

Betts hits a little roller up the first base line. Rizzo scoops it up, steps on first base, and that’s the second out.

Freddie Feeman is up with nobody on, which is best practice for New York.

First pitch!

Prediction time

For those of you keeping score at home, I picked the Dodgers in five games. As this is Game 5, this is my moment! Tonight, my pick comes true: the champs and the game total – nice! The score? 6-4, of course.

National Anthem

Tonight it’s Babyface! And he’s very shiny in his black jacket – I like the look. Very soothing and solid performance: I’ll give him a score of 8/10, which I think puts him towards the top of the 2024 World Series national anthem standings.

This is what he sounded like at the NBA All-Star Game, but tonight, there was no guitar.

Tweeting in…

FF = Freddie Freeman, who has hit a home run in six consecutive World Series games. Lucky seven for FF tonight?

The readers say…

David Athya writes:

“It’s unthinkable that the Dodgers don’t win the big prize but tonight, at least, is harder to call and if the Yankees can even just take it back to Los Angeles then it keeps the drama going! Looks a straight up duel between Cole and Flaherty; whatever man is standing the longest the better chance his team have of winning. Yankees should have had a morale boost with the batting output last night. Everyone is expecting Judge to produce eventually but I think Stanton is the man to watch.”

Well, I don’t know about unthinkable. You can imagine a scenario in which Cole delivers tonight sending everyone back to Los Angeles. Then LA would completely destroy Carlos Rodon while Yoshinobu Yamamoto keeps the Yankees bats at bay in Game 6.

If Judge is going to produce in this series, he’s running out of time.

Lineups!

I’m surprised the Yankees haven’t put Stanton back where he belongs, which is right behind Judge. Tommy Edman moves up the lineup for LA, which makes sense because he’s the NLCS MVP.

Bronx Zoo update

By now you may be familiar with the Austin Capobianco and his friend who basically assaulted Mookie Betts as he chased down a foul ball near the stands in right filed Tuesday. Well, they’re banned from Game 5, which makes sense. In fact, ESPN reported that the offenders were told that if they even tried to get inside Yankee Stadium for Game 5, they’d be arrested. What’s amazing, is that initially, the duo were told they could actually come back and watch World Series baseball. At some point, somebody from somewhere told the Yankees to lock these gentlemen out.

Oh, and it turns out that Capobianco was friends with Rob Gronkowski in college, and spoke about his buddy glowingly on Wednesday.

Only in America!

Hello!

Welcome to our live coverage of Game 5 of the 120th World Series! The Dodgers are in the Bronx looking to make sure they don’t leave for Los Angeles without the trophy, and to do that they’ll have to beat New York at Yankee Stadium, one last time.

How did we get here? Well, in Game 4 the Yankees finally put some big runs on the board while picking themselves up off the floor, beating Los Angeles 11-4 in a contest that was close until New York broke out with five runs in the eighth inning. Do the Yankees and their fans feel better about themselves now that they haven’t been swept by LA? Oh yeah, definitely. Some of their bats woke up: Anthony Volpe hit a dramatic grand slam and Austin Wells crushed a shot off the fence before launching an eighth inning home run. Even Aaron Judge showed some signs of exiting his elongated slump.

The problem is that LA threw out the dregs of their bullpen in a game that was designed to make sure their best relievers didn’t have to pitch to ensure they’re fresh for Game 5. So even if the Yankees hit double digits on Tuesday, it wasn’t against LA’s top talent, and they likely won’t see arms that are that vulnerable for the rest of the series.

Now if the Yanks can hit some real Dodger pitching and win this Game 5, this series will get serious in earnest. It’ll mean an unsettled Dodgers team schlepping west, not for a parade but for a crucial Game 6.

Whether that happens or not is mostly in the hands of their ace Gerrit Cole, who was handed a nine-year $324m contract in 2020 for precisely this moment. Cole must carry New York deep into this ballgame, and he needs to be way more than above average: he needs to dominate. This is the game that will define him going forward, and in a big spot like this, with an arm that perhaps isn’t the healthiest, I am not sure I believe in a Cole that has been hit or miss this season. A power flash from Judge would also be useful.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers are looking to their starter Jack Flaherty for a big night. The former Tiger, acquired by LA at the trade deadline, was great in Game 1 and pitched into the sixth inning before making one bad pitch to Giancarlo Stanton. Are we going to get the good Flaherty, who dominated the Mets in Game 1 of the NLCS and was strong against the Yankees on Friday, or will we see the hurler who was absolutely thrashed by the Mets in Game 5, when the Dodgers were in the same exact situation: looking to win and avoid traveling home for more baseball.

There’s lots of questions that need answering. And perhaps you have some questions, comments, thoughts or feelings you’d like to get into our live coverage. If so, feel free to tweet or email me and I’ll do my best to make you famous.

They’ll be more live World Series coverage to come - stick with us!

David will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s a look back at Tuesday night’s Game 4, where the Yankees staved off elimination.