Oct 27, 2024; New York, NY, USA; General stadium view during Los Angeles Dodgers team workouts prior to game three of the World Series against the New York Yankees at Yankees Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John Jones-Imagn Images

World Series Game 3 Preview: Yankees Look to Mount Comeback

Hannah Getman October 28, 2024 Baseball, MLB, MLB Playoffs, World Series 22 Views

The New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers will meet again on Monday night in New York for Game 3 of the World Series. The Dodgers lead the best-of-seven series 2-0 after getting wins in the first two meetings. It’ll be tough work for the Yankees to come back and win the series as roughly 84% of teams that have taken a 2-0 lead in a postseason best-of-seven series have gone on to win said series.

Causes for Concern

The Yankees will need to get something going at the plate if they hope to win tonight. This starts with American League MVP favorite Aaron Judge. Judge is 1-for-9 so far in the series with six strikeouts. He has had a hard time with runners in scoring position especially, a team’s worst nightmare for its three hitter.

The rest of the lineup has not been much better. Only three batters had hits for the Yankees on Saturday and the bottom half of the lineup recorded zero hits. Left-fielder Alex Verdugo, who bats ninth, has also struggled with just one hit in his last 17 at bats. While many fans in New York are calling for some changes to the lineup, it’s unlikely that manager Aaron Boone will switch things around.

For Los Angeles, there is some worry about its shining star, Shohei Ohtani. During Game 2, Ohtani suffered a shoulder injury on a botched steal attempt in the seventh inning. While he is most likely going to be available in game three, it has yet to be seen if Ohtani will have the same power in his bat as he normally does.

Taking the mound for LA tonight will be Walker Buehler, who missed almost two months of the season with hip issues. Buehler recorded a 5.38 ERA and went 1-6 in his 16 outings this season. In Game 3 of the National League Divisional Series against the San Diego Padres, Buehler had a rough five-inning outing allowing six runs on seven hits with no strikeouts.

Against the New York Mets in the championship series, Buehler pitched just four innings but struck out six batters and allowed no runs.

What’s Working

Despite the poor start, there have been some bright spots for New York that the team will need to rely on in Game 3. A key piece of the Yankees offense has been left fielder Juan Soto, who has been on fire this postseason. He homered and had two hits in Game 2 of the series and has four home runs in this postseason. Three of his four home runs have given the team the lead and one tied the game.

Giancarlo Stanton and Anthony Rizzo have also been solid in the Yankees lineup. Stanton has 14 RBIs and six homeruns in the postseason. Rizzo has had no trouble getting on base with a .520 on-base percentage. All three players will need to come up big in Game 3 for New York. The Yankees will also have an extra boost of energy as they will be at home for the game. The fans in the Bronx may play a role in who comes out with the win tonight.

For the Dodgers, all eyes are on Freddie Freeman who has hit homeruns in back-to-back games, including a walk off grand slam to secure the win in Game 1. Freeman now has home runs in four consecutive World Series games, going back to 2021 with the Atlanta Braves.

Tommy Edman has also been a solid piece of LA’s lineup. He had two hits in the first game of the series and followed it up with a solo homerun and a double in Game 2.

Anticipated Lineups and Where to Watch

As mentioned before, the Dodgers are going with Walker Buehler on the bump. The Yankees will be starting right-handed pitcher Clarke Schmidt. Schmidt has a 2.85 ERA this year and a 5-5 record. Both teams will most likely have the same lineups as in Game 2, unless Ohtani is out due to injury.

The game will be available to watch on Fox with first pitch at 8:08 p.m.

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About Hannah Getman

Hannah Getman is a second-year sports and media major at the University of Florida.

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