After a hard fought few weeks of playoff baseball, the World Series matchup has finally been decided. The New York Yankees will square off against the Los Angeles Dodgers in a best of seven series beginning Friday, October 25th. The Dodgers in search of their 8th title and the Yankees in search of their 28th.
Yankees:
The Yankees will appear in their first World Series since 2009 where they defeated the Phillies in six games. To reach this point, they had to handle the Kansas City Royals and the Cleveland Guardians. The Yankees will look to come out the gates hot on Friday with their ace, Gerrit Cole getting the start in what will be his fourth start of the postseason. Following Cole for games 2-4 will likely be Carlos Rodon, Clarke Schmidt, and Luis Gil. Offensively, the Yankees seem to be playing off Giancarlo Stanton and Juan Soto. Likely AL MVP Aaron Judge has been slumping so far in the playoffs batting only .161. Hingham High Schooler Henry Sellers believes that “Judge’s performance so far this postseason has been awful. He is becoming a liability for the Yankees.” The Yankees will need to make up for Judges slack if they are to hang with the dynamic Los Angeles offense. The Yankees turn to the potential return of pitcher Nestor Cortes who has been hurt since September 25th.
Dodgers:
For the Dodgers, this is their fourth time in the last eight years where they have made the World Series. Yet this year feels different, with star offseason acquisition Shohei Ohtani. Ohtani is likely to be NL MVP this season following the first ever 50 home runs and 50 stolen base seasons by a player. Hingham High School student Charlie Shape says, “Ohtani is one of the greatest players this generation will ever see. What he did this year was nothing short of historical.” Despite having Ohtani, the Dodgers are not exactly in the best position coming into the World Series. They are without two of their best pitchers, Clayton Kershaw and Tyler Glasnow. This means that at least for one of the first four games they will need to use their bullpen for all nine innings. The Dodgers have fielded one of the most talented rosters that the history of baseball has ever seen, with three former MVP’s. They look to continue winning games through the long game. They outhomered the Mets in the NLCS 11-5 with no Mets pitcher being able to contain them. The Dodgers hitters are built to play at Yankee stadium for the middle three games of the series. The short porch in right field is an easy target for some of Los Angeles’ hard-hitting left-handed batters.
