Category: sports

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Pirates Morning Report: Any Team In Need Of Mediocre Infielders Just Call The Pirates.

The one positive thing, pretty much the only positive thing, about the Pirates is their abundance of high quality starting pitching. An old adage in baseball is you cannot have enough pitching. However, the Pirate’s front office must feel that you cannot have enough infielders. In the case of infielders, quality is not even a consideration. Here is a list of the players that the Pirates have available to play 2nd, 3rd and shortstop. All of these players are on the 40 man roster and they have played any one of those positions for the Pirates or in the minors. Some of them have played in the outfield but all of them have a decent number of games in the infield. Here is a list of the future Hall of Famers with the position they have played the most in the infield or what I consider their best position: Liover Peguero 2b, Nick Gonzales 2b, Ke’Bryan Hayes 3b, Isiah Kiner-Falefa 3b, Jared Triolo 3b, Enmanuel Valdez 2b, Alika Williams SS, Ji Hwan Bae 2b, Nick Yorke 2b, and finally Tsung-Che Cheng SS. Count them, 10 players for 3 positions. The Pirates also have no. 3 ranked prospect Termar Johnson, who is projected to make his major league debut in 2025, playing, you guessed it, 2b.

These infielders have a lot in common. All of them are below average major league hitters. Half of them are not that good of fielders. The Pirates have 11 infielders that have the potential of being on the team this year. Granted Bae saw practically all of his limited action in 2024 in the outfield but he still has played 69 games at 2b for the Pirates. So, what’s a mother to do. The Pirates only carry 13 position players. It would be shocking if the Pirates wound up only carrying 12 pitchers. Will the Pirates just have a massive DFA party around March 24th? Most likely it would be Hayes, IKF, and Gonzales as the starting infield opening day. Quite frankly, these players would be the only ones that would generate any trade interest. I do not think that you would get much for them but certainly you could get some bullpen pieces. What if the Pirates traded all three of them. The new infield would look something like this, Triolo, Peguero, and Valdez. In reality this is not much of a drop off. When you add both groups’ OPS+ they come out exactly the same at about an average of 73. If Valdez gets off to a rough start, you always have Johnson waiting in the wings. You still have Williams, Chang and Yorke as replacements also. If you are going to get bullpen help, this seems the way to do it.

What do the Chicago Cubs know about Cody Bellinger that nobody else does. They traded him to the Yankees for a pitcher that is 30 years old and has pitched in only 24 major league games in his career. Plus, they had to give the Yankees 5 million dollar. Talk about a salary dump trade. The Pirates had to give up more to acquire Spencer Horwitz who has not had 400 major league at bats. It will be more than interesting to see how Bellinger does in the big apple. Will the Pirates ever pick up somebody and pay him between 15 and 25 million ? Highly unlikely. Let’s just hope they don’t spend another 35 million on garbage. I would rather see them do nothing that just pick up these washed up free agents again. Not only do they not produce but they block the progress of the younger players. One thing is for sure, the Pirates have enough infielders to field 3 teams. The sad thing is it does not matter what players you plug in, the 3 infields are going to perform about the same. Mediocrity is a hard thing to overcome. It may also be a hard thing to trade. Please, answer this cry for help, the other 31 teams in baseball. The Pirates need a right fielder and some bullpen arms. We can only pray.

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Sports: Finally, A Real College Football Playoff.

For the first time in history College Football will have a true 12 team playoff. Of course there were a couple of controversies. The panel on ESPN felt like the first-round byes should be just given to the top 4 ranked teams, no matter if they were a conference champion or not. They pointed to Arizona St. and Boise St. getting 1st round byes instead of Notre Dame and most likely Texas. I disagree. After years of conference championships being pretty much meaningless, it is great to see them get rewarded with a bye. Notre Dame will just have to join a conference, poor babies. Picking SMU over Alabama to me was a no brainer. The always effervescent Nick Saban stated that Athletic Directors would start to schedule easier teams to get wins. Here was Alabama’s non-conference schedule, Western Kentucky, South Florida and Wisconsin. There are some real ball busters there. The fact remains Alabama lost 3 conference games and 2 of those to teams that had a combined conference record of 5-11. It wasn’t so much who Alabama beat, but who they lost to that kept them out of the playoffs. In previous years any time the committee has made a controversial pick or decision, they have come out smelling like a rose. Usually, the teams that they have put into the playoffs do pretty well and sometimes they become the national champion. We will see if SMU, Arizona St. and Boise St. do the committee proud. Now, let’s look at those first round games.

Three out of the four games will feature Big Ten teams. Now I am a Big Ten guy having graduated from Ohio State many moons ago, but I believe the Big Ten is the most overrated conference in football. These first-round games could go a long way to proving me right or might show that I am all wet, which won’t be the first time. Notre Dame will be a solid favorite against Indiana, which in my view should have been the team left off the bracket. I feel they won’t even give Notre Dame a game. However, if they do or somehow pull off the upset it will be a huge feather in the Big Ten’s cap and I hope the egg on my face will be scrambled. The Ohio State (Go Bucks) vs. Tennessee game is pretty much a toss-up. It should be a close game no matter who wins but if OSU loses a close one it won’t tarnish the Big Ten’s stature. Penn St. may not be as big a favorite as Notre Dame, but they are expected to beat SMU. James Franklin is one of the worst in game coaches in the country and if he lives up to his horrible play calling and strategy, SMU will have a real shot at this game. The Mustangs (I love that name) should come into the game with a chip on their shoulder and even though they lost the ACC Championship game, they made a great comeback, which should make them confident and ready to play. The Big Ten needs to win at least one of these 3 games to show that they deserve the rating that the committee bestowed upon them. The Big Ten is more likely to go 0-3 in this first round of the playoffs than 3-0. The remaining game is Clemson going to play Texas. Texas will be the solid favorite here but again Clemson is on a roll with a big Championship win.

Whatever happens I will follow it right along until the National Championship Game around the 3rd week of January. I will blog right before each round discussing the previous round and previewing the next round. The only team that will surprise me if they do not make it to the Championship game would be the Oregon Ducks. On the other side of the coin if Indiana wins one game, I will be shocked. The other 10 teams will not surprise me no matter what they do. Any one of the ten could make it to the title game. I love watching college football. I believe it is the most entertaining of the team sports. I am so happy that I am finally going to get to see a real college football playoff season. I do not think the system needs tweaked at all. Keep giving those byes to the conference champions. They deserve it, it is quite an accomplishment.

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Pirates Morning Report: The Blake Snell Signing, High Risk But What Kind Of Reward.

The Dodgers signed Blake Snell to a 5 year contract that will pay him about 36 million a year for the next 5 years. Blake Snell was a high risk signing. He has played in the majors for 9 seasons. In only 2 of those seasons has he pitched in over 30 games. He has had 2 outstanding seasons which has netted him 2 Cy Young awards. Besides not coming to the post all that often his overall numbers are not that impressive. His career OPS+, the comparison stat where 100 is league average, is 128. Simply put, over the past 9 years he has pitched better than 28% of major league pitchers. Max Fried of the Braves is a free agent also this year. His career OPS+ over 8 years is 140. He has had his share of injuries, even more so than Snell. He has averaged 21 starts per year whereas Snell has averaged close to 24 starts. Snell’s biggest problem is his control. Even his Cy Young year with the Padres he averaged 5 walks per 9 innings. Until Snell threw his no hitter this year where he went 9 innings, he had never had a complete game. Let that one sink in for a while. Naturally when the Dodgers signed Snell all of the media was moaning and complaining that the system is broken, blah blah blah. The idea that only about 5 or 6 teams could afford Snell is ridiculous. Even the Pirates could afford Snell even though they would never admit it. However, what teams like the Pirates cannot do is take the risk of Snell having a mediocre year which he did for 3 of those 9 years. They also cannot take the risk of him taking the mound only 24 times or less which he did 5 out of 9 seasons. The Dodgers can take that risk and are taking that risk. In my view it is a big risk. The Dodgers have one of the strongest stables of starting pitching in all of baseball. The question will be how many of them will be able to come to the post. Not many did last year for various reasons. Despite all of this the Dodgers did manage to win the World Series. They still have the big three, Betts, Ohtani, and Freeman, who combined for 15 WAR last year. The starting 9 for the Pirates had a combined WAR of 8. This was not a player that the Pirates needed to or should have signed. It is obvious they need position players. Even for the Dodgers the Blake Snell signing is a burden for their payroll. It is very likely a signing that they will regret.

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Pirates Morning Report: Let’s Set The Record Straight

The offseason is now in full swing, although not much has happened yet with everybody waiting to see where Juan Soto signs and for how much. The off season may be tougher on Pirate fans than the regular season because the Pirates do so little. Even when they sign someone it is usually on garbage. They spent over 35 million on garbage last year. With the exception of Andrew McCutchen and Aroldis Chapman, the free agent signings of Rowdy Tellez, Michael A. Taylor, Yasmani Grandal, Marcos Gonzales, and Martin Perez contributed absolutely nothing to the Pirates cause. The propaganda put out by the Pittsburgh media is the Pirates cannot afford someone like Juan Soto or other top free agents. The system is unfair. Baseball needs a salary cap. As I will show this is another example of pure garbage. Let’s look at the facts, Jack

The Pirate payroll in 2024 came in at around 85 million, which put them 29th in baseball only ahead of the Oakland A’s. When you remove the free agents from the equation in 2025 this will drop it to around 50 million. The only free agent the Pirates might resign would be Andrew McCutchen from last year’s bunch. The speculation on what Juan Soto might sign for is really wild. I will go with one number that has been bandied about. If he would sign for 700,000 million for 13 years this would come out to an annual salary of almost 54 million. This would put the Pirate payroll at approximately 104 million. If the Pirates can’t have a 100 million dollar payroll, then they might as well trade Paul Skenes, Oneil Cruz, Jared Jones immediately. People will argue that if you sign Soto for that much that the Pirates will not be able to sign those 3 players to long term contracts. I wrote before that one of the top priorities this year for the Pirates should be to sign Skenes to a 6 year deal worth 30 million per year. However, to get a player like Juan Soto that plan could certainly be tabled. Adding Soto makes the Pirates immediate contenders not only for the playoffs but for the World Series. Those revenues would certainly help toward extending those three players. The bottom line is it’s not that the Pirates can’t afford Soto, it’s that they really do not want to sign Soto. There are many in the list of top 30 free agents that could really help turn the Pirates into contenders. They probably won’t sign any of them even though they could easily afford at least two of them. Here is a list of the ones that fill the Pirates needs the most.

In no particular order, Pete Alonso 1st base age 30, Alex Bregman 3rd base age 31, Teoscar Hernadez OF age 32, Anthony Santander OF age 30, Tyler O’ Neill OF age 30, Jurickson Profar OF age 32, Tanner Scott left handed relief pitcher age 30, Christian Walker 1st base age 34, Paul Goldschmidt 1st base age 37 and good old Carlos Santana 1st base age 39. With the exception of Bergman all of these free agents listed are areas of need for the Pirates. There are some great starting pitchers out there and although this is a Pirate strength as the old saying goes you cannot have enough pitching. Getting another top of the rotation starter may send one or more of the starters to the bullpen, which is a good way to bolster a very thin bullpen. It might set up a trade for an offensive threat by sending one of the mid rotation guys to another team. Last year I wrote that the Pirates should sign Cody Bellinger. The Cubs signed him for 30 million, less than what the Pirates paid for all that garbage. Granted Bellinger did not really light it up last year with a slash line of .266/.325/.484 with a WAR of 2.2, think Oneil Cruz with defense. These numbers were way better than anything the Pirate first basemen and centerfielder put up in 2024. Would it had been enough to get the Pirates into the playoffs, who knows, but it would have most likely meant meaningful games in September. Will the Pirates sign anybody in the top 30 free agent market? Most likely not. There is always a risk when it comes to signing free agents. All of the above players are 30 or over. However, the Pirates in their current state have a lot of young unproven players. They only have 3 bonified major league position players, Oneil Cruz, barely, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Bryan Reynolds, solidly. Any free agent they signm if they only perform at the Major League average will be a huge upgrade. They desperately need a corner outfielder and a first baseman. They are sitting there right in front of them. Instead, the Pirates will probably continue as the king of the waiver deals and minor league contract signings. Here are their last two. I will withhold their names to protect their families and agents from embarrassment. Waiver player no. 1 has 139 major league at bats with a slash line of .209/.245/.331. He is an outfielder and a 1st baseman but not like Cody Bellinger. With Waiver player no. 2 it even gets better. Career minor league player, 28 years old with 139 major league at bats. His slash line is .152/.222/.273. What I get a big kick out of is when you read the articles about these acquisitions they somehow write about how they can help the Pirates. They actually have the audacity to give some justification to picking up these players. The only things these players can do is to help continue the losing ways of this pathetic organization. It is too bad there is something not politically incorrect about the nickname Pirates. There would be no problem coming up with the Pirates new name. The Pittsburgh Pathetics. The Pirate payroll is set up perfectly to make at least 2 free agent pick ups that would run between 20 and 30 million per year per player. It is so sad that this has practically no chance of happening. Which is the same that can be said for a winning season next year.

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Pirates Morning Report: World Series, The Final Game

Final Score: Dodgers 7 Yankees 6

Why The Dodgers Won: Thanks to the worst fielding inning in World Series history the Dodgers were able to come back from a 5-0 deficit to win the 2024 Fall Classic in 5 games. Instead of 2 out lightening, the Dodgers had 5 out lightening as the Yankees handed them 5 runs all unearned in the 5th inning. The go-ahead run was set up by catcher’s interference in the year of catcher’s interference. The Dodgers took the lead for good in the top of the 8th on 2 sacrifice flies. Dave Roberts’s gamble paid off by giving the A squad bullpen a rest on a bullpen game. He brought in his big starter Walker Buehler in the 9th to nail down the win. This move is far from unprecedented, but Roberts started Buehler warming up in the top of the 8th inning, giving him plenty of time to loosen up. I think he had no intention of bringing him in the bottom of the 8th. He stuck with Blake Treinen when the Yankees threatened in the 8th inning and Treinen came through getting out of the jam. Buehler came in the 9th and mowed the Yankees down to give the Dodgers the World Series win.

The Key Moments Of The Game: Gerrit Cole was breezing along through 4 innings giving up 2 walks and 0 hits. Then the nightmare began. Kiki Hernandez started the inning off with a single to right field for the first hit of the game. Tommy Edman hit a little humpback liner to centerfield that Aaron Judge just dropped when he took his eye off the ball to check the runner. The drop surprised Judge so much that there was just enough of a hesitation to pick up the ball, that Hernandez avoided being forced at 2nd base. Will Smith hit a ground ball to the hole at short, and Anthony Volpe made a terrible throw to third base that Jazz Chisholm could not short hop and everybody was safe to load the bases. Then Cole bore down and struck out the next two batters on 8 pitches. Mookie Betts hit a ground ball to 1st that took a little bit of a strange hop that moved Rizzo to his right just a touch. On a play that Cole thought Rizzo was going to take it himself and Rizzo thought Cole was covering the bag the Yankees failed to get an out. This was the 5th out that the Yankees failed to get. The Dodgers then struck with 5 out lightening when Freddie Freeman singled to drive in 2 runs. Teoscar Hernandez then doubled off the left centerfield wall to drive in the tying runs and the Dodgers were eyeballing the Yankees 5-5. This was an inning that was gift wrapped by the Yankees and the Dodgers said thank you very much, see you next year.

Next Game: None, the season is over. This was the redemption post season for Dave Roberts of the Dodgers. He may not get manager of the year this year, but he was the manager of the post season. Going into the playoffs the Dodger pitching was going to be their big weakness. Roberts managed the bullpen superbly, always keeping his eye on the main goal which is to win each series. He was especially brilliant in the World Series saving his bullpen in game 4 when the Dodgers had a 3-0 lead in games. On the other side of the coin Aaron Boone continues to prove that you cannot go from the broadcast booth to managing a baseball team no matter how much talent they have. I am not all that familiar with the Yankee bench, but it looks like Boone is not either. He only used two pinch hitters the entire series and that was to interchange catchers both times. He put a pitcher in the game in the bottom of the 10th in game 1 that had not pitched in over a month and never relieved this late in a game in his career. Result, grand slam home run, game over. After it was all said and done, the Dodgers won this World Series because they made baseball plays, and the Yankees did not. Hopefully the Yankees will really have a spring training next year.

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Pirates Morning Report: World Series, Game 4

Final Score: Yankees 11 Dodgers 4

Why The Yankees Won: The Yankee bats came alive, Dave Roberts decided to use the B squad in the bullpen game, and the Dodgers failed to execute basic baseball plays in the 8th inning that helped break the game open. The one bat that finally broke out of a huge slump was Austin Wells going 2 for 3 with a walk, including a home run and a double. We will see if Aaron Boone will move him up in the batting order tonight. Dave Roberts decision to go with the B squad will be looked at as brilliant, if the bullpen has a big game tonight with the extra day of rest. On the other hand, if the Yankees make a series of it, he will be second guessed for allowing the Yankees to get off the mat. I am not a big Dave Roberts fan but, in this case, I have to agree with him and give him credit for a very gutsy move. Tonight’s game is the one the Dodgers should win. If they don’t then we have a series that might even go 7 games. This was another game marred by walks and foul balls. The Dodgers walked 6 batters and hit another. The bad news for the Yankees is that their big 3 did not contribute much to this win. They went 2 for 11 with 1 RBI. There is no question that Shohei Ohtani is greatly affected by his shoulder injury. The Yankees need to challenge him more until he shows he can do more than just hit line drives to the middle of the outfield.

The Key Moments Of The Game: In the bottom of the 3rd B squad leader Daniel Hudson entered the game with the Dodgers leading 2-1. He threw 6 straight sliders to Juan Soto to strike him out. He hit the slumping Aaron Judger on a first pitch fast ball. The first pitch fast ball to Jazz Chisholm got ripped 110 MPH into right field for a base hit sending Judge to third. He walked Giancarlo Stanton on 6 pitches but none of them were in the strike zone, 4 sliders two fastballs. He did get Anthony Rizzo to pop out after falling behind him 2-0. Anthony Volpe took a first pitch slider on the lower inside of the plate and golfed it into the seats for a grand slam home run to turn the game and maybe the series around giving the Yankees a 5-4 lead. In the bottom of the 8th with Yankees leading 6-4 and preparing to use their closer Luke Weaver for 2 and 1/3 innings, the Dodgers failed to execute a tag and made a bad throw to the plate from a drawn-up 2nd base. The dropped ball on the tag saved the Yankees from the consequences of another base running blunder and opened the floodgates for a 5 run inning. This enabled the Yankees to keep their closer on the bench for the 9th.

Next Game: Tonight, in Yankee Stadium. It is ridiculous to say that this is a must win for the Dodgers tonight, but they did everything last night to set themselves up to end this series in 5 games. Yes, the Yankee bats came alive last night, but they did it against the B squad of the Dodger bullpen. Unless the Dodgers break open one of the games, we may never see them again the rest of the series, with the exception Landon Knack, who distinguished himself with 4 solid innings to help keep the A squad well rested. If somehow some way the Yankees win tonight, then the pressure of the Series will equal out. Maybe we will see history after all.

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Pirates Morning Report: World Series, Game 3

Final Score: Dodgers 4 Yankees 2

Why The Dodgers Won: The Dodger’s pitching continued to shine, the defense came up big, and even the umpires helped the Dodgers to their 3rd straight win over the Yankees. This game got into post season mode 2024, by both teams walking a combined 12 batters and the Yankees hitting 2 just for good measure. There were lots of foul balls just to make things perfect. Freddie Freeman hit another homer for 3 games in a row and 5 games in a row going back to the Atlanta series. The Yankees made it a little interesting in the 9th with a 2 out 2 run homer, but it was too little too late. The Dodgers are one win away from a World Series Championship and unless something radically changes, they should get it tonight. The Yankees do not play sound baseball and with such a good team like the Dodgers you are going to lose.

The Key Moments Of The Game: This game had a lot of big plays. In the bottom of the 4th with one out Giancarlo Stanton doubled to left field. Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a sinking line drive that Mookie Betts, after getting a late jump made a spectacular catch. Anthony Volpe lined a single to left but Stanton was thrown out at the plate on a great throw by Teoscar Hernandez and tag by Will Smith. There was no room for error and the Dodgers executed the play perfectly to end the inning. In the bottom of the 6th Tommy Edman made a great play to catch a bad throw by pitcher Brusdar Graterol to get a force out at 2nd. If he does not make that play, most likely the Yankees go on to score a run in the inning. The Yankees had 1st and 2nd with 2 out in the bottom of the 7th with Gleyber Torres at the plate. He had worked the count to 2-2 when a pitch that was at least 2 baseballs above the strike zone was called a strike. This should have been ball 3 and the at bat would have continued but with that call the inning was over. Electronic strike zone HELP! The Yankees never threatened after that other than the home run and are on the brink of elimination.

The Next Game: Tonight, Yankee Stadium. Even though I do not see the Yankees coming back to pull off the miracle, there is one interesting historical note. Dodger manager Dave Roberts was a member of the Boston Red Sox team that came back from the 3-0 deficit to defeat the Yankees in the League Championship Series in 2004. In fact, he stole 2nd in the bottom of the ninth and scored the tying run to send game 4 into extra innings, that the Red Sox won to start that amazing comeback. Could the fates even things up here? I do not see that happening, because the Dodgers are simply out baseballing the Yankees. Could be the last baseball game of 2024.

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Pirates Morning Report: World Series, Game 2

Final Score: Dodgers 4 Yankees 2

Why The Dodgers Won: Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched an outstanding 6 and 1/3 innings giving up a home run for the only Yankee hit, walking 2 and striking out 4. The bullpen took over from there until a shaky 9th inning. The Dodgers hit 3 more home runs to account for all 4 runs. Freddie Freeman and Tommy Edman hit solo shots and Teoscar Hernandez hit a 2 run home run. It was pretty much a standoff with the big 3. The Dodger big 3 went 3 for 11 with a walk and a home run and RBI. The Yankees big 3 went 3 for 12 with a home run and 2 RBI’s. The bad news for the Yankees is that Aaron Judge is still in a funk going 0 for 4 striking out 3 times. The Dodgers seemed to have this game under control until the top of the 9th

Key Moment Of The Game: It was 4-1 Dodgers going into the 9th inning when Juan Soto led off with a single off Blake Treinen. Treinen struck out Judge thanks to him taking a 2nd strike and swinging at a ball out of the strike zone. During the at bat Soto moved to 2nd on a wild pitch. Giancarlo Stanton singled Soto home to make the score 4-2. Jazz Chisholm Jr. singled and Anthony Rizzo was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Anthony Volpe had a worse at bat than Judge, if you can believe that. He received 6 pitches and swung at 3 pitches out of the strike zone to strike out. If he would have just stood there with the bat on his shoulder, the Yankees would have scored a run. Dave Roberts had seen enough and brought in the left hander Alex Vesia to face the struggling Austin Wells. Aaron Boone countered with Jose Trevino. One pitch and Vesia got Trevino to fly out to centerfield to end the game. The lack of plate discipline really hurt the Yankees in the 9th

Next Game: Tomorrow night, Yankee Stadium. The Yankees trail in the series 2 games to none. I mentioned this in the history of this rivalry, that in 11 World Series meetings 4 times the team that won the first two games lost the series including the last 2. It will not happen a 5th time if Aaron Judge does not come out of his slump. It will be a must win situation for the Yankees come Monday night. The other big news in last night’s game was the injury that Shohei Ohtani suffered when sliding, a rare and unusual baseball maneuver. The Dodgers are hopeful that he will be able to play on Monday. Let’s hope they teach him to slide today.

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Pirates Morning Report: World Series, Game 1

Final Score: Dodgers 6 Yankees 3 10 innings

Why The Dodgers Won: Despite not being able to get runners in from 3rd base twice with less than 2 outs, the Dodgers were able to rally in the 10th inning scoring 4 runs on Freddie Freeman’s walk off grand slam home run. The game started out as a pitching duel between Jack Flaherty and Gerrit Cole. After 6 innings the score was 2-1 Yankees thanks to a 2 run one out homer by Giancarlo Stanton in the top of the 6th. He could have been the hero of the game, but the Yankees could not make a basic baseball play and it cost them the game. After the Stanton home run the Yankees loaded the bases with 2 outs but could not score a run. Tommy Edman made a great play on a ground ball that kept a run from scoring. It was a run that the Yankees would desperately need.

The KEY Moment Of The Game: Going into the bottom of the 8th the Yankees were clinging to that 2-1 lead. Shohei Ohtani lined a drive off the top of the right field wall and had to run hard to just get a double the ball was hit so hard. Juan Soto threw the ball in, and Gleyber Torres made a half-assed effort to catch the ball, with the ball going off his glove at a crazy angle allowing Ohtani to get to third base. Even though Soto was charged with the error Torres tried to short hop the ball when he did not have to, and it got by him. With Ohtani on third base and 1 out, Mookie Betts hit a sacrifice fly to deep centerfield that scored Ohtani with the tying run.. If the Yankees make this routine play, Ohtani is on 2nd base and the Dodgers do not score a run. The Yankees would have gone on to win the game 2-1 and there are no 10th inning heroics by Freddie Freeman.

Next Game: Tonight, Game 2 in Dodger Stadium. It will be Carlos Rodon going for the Yankees and Yoshinobu Yamamoto for the Dodgers. The big three for the Dodgers did better than the big three for the Yankees. Freeman, Betts and Ohtani went 3 for 13 with a home run and driving in 5 runs. Soto, Judge, and Stanton went 3 for 13 with a home run driving in 2 runs. Overall, the Dodgers put the ball in play better than the Yankees only striking out 4 times to the Yankees 13. It was an exciting tense opening game of the World Series, that boiled down to not making a basic routine play, allowing the Dodgers to go on and win the game. If the Dodgers win it in 7 games remember this one.

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Pirates Morning Report: Dodger, Yankee, World Series History

Since 1941 the Dodgers and the Yankees have meant each other 11 times in the World Series. No two teams have played each other more in the fall classic than these iconic franchises. The Yankees have had the decided edge in the series winning 8 out of the 11 match ups. They haven’t met since 1981. From 1949 to 1956 they met 5 times. The Yankees won 4 out of 5. They were the Brooklyn Dodgers during those years making the rivalry extremely heated. Let’s take a brief look at each series and the highlights of each one.

1941: The Yankees won in 5 games winning games 1,3,4, and 5. Joe Dimaggio was the Yankee big name. The most interesting stats of this series are that there were only a combined 3 home runs, the Yankees only struck out 18 times and there were a combined 5 complete games by starting pitchers. They were mostly low scoring tight games with the Yankees sweeping the Dodgers at Ebbets Field to take the series. No game took 3 hours to play and the one that came close, 2:54, there were 11 runs scored.

1947: The Yankees won in 7 games. Again, the home run was not a big weapon with only 5 being hit for the entire series. This was Yogi Berra’s first World Series and he would hit one of those 5 home runs. He would appear in 13 more Series, the most in history. The Yankees won game 7, 5-2, trailing 2-0 after 1.5 innings. They broke back in the bottom of the 2nd to score one run, and added 2 in the fourth to take a 3-2 lead that they never relinquished.

1949: The Yankees won in 5 games in a series that was dominated by pitching in the early going. The Yankees and the Dodgers split the first 2 games by the same score of 1-0. Teams started hitting better as the series went on and Yankees won a slug fest in the 5th game 10-6 to complete a 3 game sweep in Brooklyn for the 2nd time in their first 3 meetings.

1952: Even having the home field advantage for the first time could not help the Dodgers as they lost to the Yankees in 7 games. The Yankees continued to have success in Ebbets field by winning the last two games there 3-2 and 4-2. Mickey Mantle gave the Yankees the lead in the top of the 6th in game 7, hitting a solo home run to make the score 3-2. The Dodgers had 1st and 2nd with one out in the bottom of the 7th but could not score. They never threatened after that, and Yankees had won 4 straight series against the Dodgers.

1953: The Yankees won in 6 games, and it looked like they might sweep the series when they won the first two games. Finally, Ebbets was kind to the Dodgers as they won the next two games to even the series. The Yankees won game 5, 11-7 to take a 3-2 lead in the series. Game 6 was one of the more exciting games in the rivalry, the Yankees had a 3 to 1 lead going into the top of the 9th. After one out with Allie Reynolds pitching Duke Snyder walked. Carl Furillo lit up Reynold for a home run and the Dodgers tied it up 3-3. Reynolds settled down to strike out next two batters to end the inning. Hank Bauer walked to start the bottom of the 9th. After one out, Mickey Mantle hit a swinging bunt down 3rd to put runners on 1st and 2nd. Billy Martin capped off a great World Series performance by driving in the winning run with a single up the middle. Martin had 12 hits in 24 at bats, hitting 2 home runs and driving in 8 runs. It was the Yankees 5th World Series championship in a row.

1955: FINALLY, the Dodgers won, but it was a struggle. The Yankees won the first two games of the series at home and looked like the Dodgers were going down again. This time Ebbets field was their friend as they won the next 3 games, as the offense scored 21 runs. The Yankees won game 6 behind Whitey Ford. In the pivotal game 7 Johnny Podres scattered 8 hits and 2 walks to shutout the Yankees and send the Dodgers to their first World Series win. The Yankees scored 5 runs in the bottom of the 1st in game 6 and never scored another run for 17 innings. Dead bat syndrome even happened in the 50’s

1956: The Yankees bounced back to win the Series in 7 games. This time it was the Dodgers that jumped out to the 2-0 edge in games. The Yankees won the next 3 games in Yankee Stadium highlighted by the perfect game thrown by Don Larson in game 5. The Dodgers forced a game 7 with a tight 1-0 win where Jackie Robinson playing in his last World Series drove in the winning run in the bottom of the 10th. Game 7 was a runaway as Johnny Kucks shutout the Dodgers on 3 hits with the Yankees winning 9-0. This was the series of the journeyman pitcher with both Kucks and Larson winning the big games for the Yankees.

1963: The Dodgers buried the Yankees with strong pitching performances from Sandy Koufax, Johnny Podres and Don Drysdale. For the 4 games the Yankees managed only 4 runs on 22 hits with 5 extra base hits. The Dodger pitchers only walked 5 batters and struck out 37. Koufax won 2 games, and the Dodgers had the sweep. Ron Perranoski pitched 2/3 of an inning to wrap up game 2, to be the only other pitcher to appear for the Dodgers in the 4 games. We all know that will never happen again. One side note, Al Downing, who lost game 2, gave up Hank Aaron’s 715th home run to break Babe Ruth’s long standing home run record.

1977: It was 14 years before the Dodgers and the Yankees would meet again. The Yankees won the series in 6 games with the 6th game being the Reggie Jackson 3 home run game, that catapulted the Yankees to an 8-4 win. It was the ever volatile Billy Martin who was the manager that year. Even though the Yankees would go on the win the pennant again in 78 Martin did not last the year being fired after 94 games.

1978: It was rematch time and the Yankees put it to the Dodgers again 4 games to 2. The Dodgers got off to a hot start winning the first 2 games at Dodger Stadium but the Yankees swept the next 4 games scoring 28 runs. The pivotal game was game 4. Reggie Smith hit a 3 run home run to give the Dodgers a 3-0 lead in the top of the 5th. The Yankees scored 2 in the bottom of the 6th thanks to a botched double play that allowed the 2nd run to score. Thurman Munson doubled home Paul Blair in the bottom of the 8th to tie the game and eventually it went into extra innings. Lou Piniella drove in the winning run with 2 out in the bottom of the 10th as a leadoff walk came back to haunt the Dodgers. The next 2 games were blowouts for the Yankees and they defeated the Dodgers for the 8th time in the World Series.

1981: The Dodgers got to exact revenge on the Yankees winning in 6 games. It was another series where the team that jumped out to the 2-0 lead in games wound up losing the series. The Dodgers won 3 nail biting one run games in Los Angeles. In game 4 the Dodgers trailed 4-0 and 6-3 before scoring 3 runs in the bottom of the 6th to tie the game and 2 in the bottom of the 7th to take the lead that they never relinquished. In game 5, Pedro Guerrero who hit 12 home runs during the regular season, and Steve Yeager who hit 3, hit back to back home runs in the bottom of the 7th to give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead. The Yankees got a runner on first base in the top of the 9th but could not score. The Dodgers blew the Yankees away in Yankee Stadium 9-2 to win the series.

We now have the 12th meeting between these teams in the World Series. It took 43 years to get to number 12. With the star power we will be seeing I think it was worth the wait. In 1981 even though game 5 was tight and the Yankees got a runner on first base in the top of the 9th, Jerry Reuss went on to complete the game. It is a guarantee we will not see that in this series. It will be surprising if any starter goes longer than 7 innings. If history has anything to say about it if I was the Dodgers or Yankees, I would not win those first two games. Four times the team that won the first two games went on to lose the series. This has only happened 10 times in the history of the World Series and has not happened since 1996. I still like the Dodgers to win. It all starts tonight.