NEW YORK -- The New York Yankees will play at least one more game, and they can thank the bottom of their lineup. Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 4 of the World Series (NY 11, LA 4), forcing a Game 5. The game was closer than the score indicates, as New York did not blow things open until scoring five in the bottom of the eighth.
The Dodgers jumped out to a first-inning two-run lead thanks to yet another Freddie Freeman homer, his fourth in four games. The Yankees chipped away with one run in the second. In the third inning, they finally got the big swing they've lacked pretty much all series when Anthony Volpe clubbed a grand slam, turning a 2-1 deficit into a 5-2 Yankees lead.
Dodgers righty Daniel Hudson made a mess that inning, loading the bases with a hit-by-pitch (Aaron Judge), a long single (Jazz Chisholm Jr.), and a walk (Giancarlo Stanton). Volpe capitalized and gave the Yankees what was arguably their biggest hit of their season. They were trying to avoid elimination and Volpe gave the Yankees their first lead since the tenth inning of Game 1.
"I think I pretty much blacked out as soon as I saw it go over the fence," Volpe said about the grand slam. "We just want to keep putting pressure on them, and I think everyone had confidence in everyone in the lineup that someone was going to get the big hit. We've been having such good at-bats and putting such good swings on the ball that we just felt like it was only a matter of time."
Three innings after Volpe's grand slam, his close friend Austin Wells tacked on an insurance run with a solo homer, his second of the playoffs. The rookie catcher doubled in the second inning and also walked to help spark that five-run eighth inning. He entered Game 4 hitting an ugly .093/.152/.163 this postseason, then broke through Tuesday night.
"To have a moment like that, for him to have a moment like that is special, but to do it together, you can't trade it for anything," Volpe said about going deep with Wells in the same World Series game.
For all the (understandable) attention on Judge's struggles, he is hardly the only Yankees having a tough time at the plate. Juan Soto and Stanton have been outstanding the entire postseason. Just about everyone else has struggled. Going into Game 4, Soto and Stanton were hitting .311/.406/.700 in October. All other Yankees combined for a .199/.308/.290 line.
To beat the Dodgers -- even just to force a Game 5 -- the Yankees needed someone else to step up and provide offense. Soto and Stanton can't do it by themselves. Ideally Judge would get going, but the bottom of the lineup needed to contribute too. Then Volpe, the No. 7 hitter, hit a grand slam in Game 4. Wells, the No. 5 hitter, had a big day. No. 9 hitter Alex Verdugo drove in two runs too.
Prior to the five-run eighth inning, New York's 1-2-3-4 hitters were a combined 1 for 17 with four walks in Game 4. It was a quiet game for Gleyber Torres, Soto, Chisholm, and Judge up to that point. It was the 7-8-9 hitters who led the way and gave the Yankees the kind of bottom-of-the-lineup production they haven't gotten this postseason, especially in the power department.
"Our guys were ready to play," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Tuesday. "Obviously a lot of big at-bats. Volpe with a big blow. The bottom of the order -- Volpe, Wells, Verdugo -- all with really good at-bats."
Bottom-of-the-order production was a major storyline coming into the World Series and, really, neither team was getting it through three games. The Dodgers' 7-8-9 lineup spots were a combined 5 for 28 (.179) in Games 1-3 while New York's were 3 for 34 (.088). Freeman carried the Dodgers through three games. He's been a one-man wrecking crew for Los Angeles.
The Yankees, meanwhile, weren't getting much from anyone. They still need Judge to get going -- he reached base three times in Game 4, so perhaps that's the start of something -- but they also needed more from their non-stars. In Game 4, Volpe and Wells stepped up with big swings, and 7-8-9 hitters drove in seven of the team's 11 runs.
"It's not really a friendship anymore. It's a brotherhood," Volpe said about his relationship with Wells. "We've been through it all together. The highest of highs and at some point the lowest of lows. He's my first call, my last call."
The Dodgers now have a 3-1 series lead, so the Yankees are in one game, one inning, one pitch at a time mode. They have a big hill to climb. But to have any chance at making this series interested, they need half their lineup to wake up and contribute. That happened in Game 4. The bottom of the lineup was great and the Yankees lived to play another day.
"I feel like it really just takes one big swing, and I feel like that was Volpe's big swing there," Wells said. "It allowed everyone to just take a deep breath and have fun. I think also the situation we were in, I think that we just kind of needed to say screw it and go after it and have fun because some guys may never come back to the World Series again."