Needing epic comeback, Yanks focus on 1-at-a-time approach

NEW YORK -- Everything about the moments leading into Game 3 of the World Series on Monday screamed New York in October, from the 1990s-era uniform turtlenecks unearthed from long-forgotten storage boxes to the sight of Derek Jeter in the center of the diamond where he’d helped acquire his fifth and final ring, lobbing a ceremonial first pitch across home plate.

It had been 5,472 days since Yankee Stadium hosted a Fall Classic, which seems even longer when measured in Steinbrenner years. The wait continues for a championship-caliber performance, though, as the home team hardly seemed present between the baselines. Freddie Freeman’s first-inning homer sucked the air out of the building in a contest the Yankees never led, absorbing a 4-2 loss to the Dodgers.

“No one said this was going to be easy,” said Alex Verdugo, whose ninth-inning homer represented the Bombers’ only runs of Game 3. “We understood what was expected from us and how hard this was going to be. We’ve just got to stick together, block out that noise.

“I know how good this team is, and if that team wins three in a row, why can’t we win three in a row?”

Though they are some 3,000 miles and a half-week removed from the late-inning theatrics of Game 1, the Yankees have seemingly not recovered from the gut shot of Freeman’s game-winning blast off Nestor Cortes, the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history. Verdugo lamented after Game 3 that “the first game was ours;” other Yankees felt the same.

Reflecting on his club’s position, Clarke Schmidt said that “it felt like the rug got swept [out from] under us” in Game 1.

“When you’re playing in a series like this, you’ve got to be able to move on after the first game,” said Schmidt, who was dented for three runs in 2 2/3 innings. “We took a punch there and haven’t been able to respond yet.”

Cortes, who has had plenty of time to lament the pitch that created Freeman’s Kirk Gibson moment, said the timely hitting and pitching that helped the Yankees advance past the Royals and Guardians earlier in this postseason has yet to show up against Los Angeles.

“This series, stuff hasn’t gone our way,” Cortes said. “The first game, I gave up the walk-off homer; we’re a pitch away from winning that game. Then Game 2, they had a big inning and they were able to get past us there. Then obviously [Game 3] was a tough one.”

As winter creeps up on his team, Aaron Judge said the Yankees’ focus needs to be on playing great through the next nine innings -- then continue to keep doing that. Judge is trying to dig out of his own slump, having gone hitless with one walk in Game 3; he’s 1-for-12 in the World Series.

“Like I’ve been telling them, it just takes one game, just takes one thing,” Judge said. “Don’t try to overthink anything in this process. Don’t listen to the outside noise, because it’s just noise. We’ve got a job to do on the field.”

So how tall is the task ahead? Well, these Yankees would need to accomplish something that has never been done in the World Series. Only the 2004 Red Sox have faced a 3-0 deficit and lived to tell the tale, famously fighting back in the American League Championship Series against the Yankees.

• How the Yankees can overcome 3-0 deficit

When the Yankees faced elimination against the Astros in the 2022 ALCS, coaches circulated videos that included highlights of the ’04 Red Sox -- notably featuring current Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. It didn’t work, and given the icy reception that garnered from Jeter and other members of the ’04 Yanks, that’s a motivational tactic best left to the dustbin of history.

“We're trying to get a game tomorrow, OK?” said manager Aaron Boone. “That's where our focus lies. Hopefully we can go be this amazing story and shock the world. But right now, it's about trying to get a lead, trying to grab a game, and force another one, and then on from there. But we've got to grab one first.”

This is the fourth time in franchise history that the Yankees have faced a 3-0 hole in the World Series; they lost all three, going winless against the Reds (1976), Dodgers (1963) and Giants (1922).

“They’re one win away; we’re four wins away. You can do the math with that,” Verdugo said. “We’ve got an uphill fight, and it’s going to start with tomorrow. We win tomorrow, we go and face [Jack] Flaherty here, then hopefully take care of business and get back over there to try to win two.”

That may be the only way to view it, at least if your job title involves wearing pinstripes. Verdugo and others refuse to see the current World Series as lopsided, despite the long odds they face.

The final scores have been 6-3, 4-2 and 4-2 -- evidence of a matchup that could have broken differently with better fortune or execution, particularly with runners in scoring position (4-for-20).

“One swing, one at-bat, one play, everything changes for us,” Judge said. “It’s just a mindset you’ve got to have going into this. We all know what’s at stake. We all know our back is up against the wall. We’ve got to get it going our way.”