Aaron Judge says his big mistake in the World Series will stick with him forever

NEW YORK – They've waited 15 years to reach baseball's biggest stage, only to shrink in the biggest moments.

They pride themselves on developing and importing players tough enough for the game's biggest market – only to find themselves exposed when it mattered most.

And as the New York Yankees scattered into the winter on Wednesday night, they did so with the most bittersweet taste imaginable: that they lost this World Series because they played well below their abilities.

The Yankees didn't mean to go out like that, but boy did they ever. To be clear, the Los Angeles Dodgers were by far the superior team, a fact confirmed by their 4-1 victory over the Yankees in that World Series.

But when the Yankees blew a five-run lead in the fifth inning of the decisive fifth game before losing 7-6, they failed to gain the upper hand over the Dodgers, due in large part to self-inflicted wounds , the Yankees showed that they're not quite ready for that prime-time stage.

And so the battle of the superteams went to World Series MVP Freddie Freeman and three-time champion Mookie Betts, to one-year newcomer Teoscar Hernandez and the relentless Kiké Hernandez, all of whom contributed significantly in ways big and small to the series-clinching victory.

The Yankees? They dropped a routine fly ball, failed on a force play, failed to cover first – all in one inning – and missed a great chance at their first championship since 2009 by flopping in Games 1 and 5.

“I think being behind in the World Series will stay with me until the day I die,” says franchise player Aaron Judge, whose Game 5 was a journey in itself: a two-run home run at one Overcoming a lingering lull and giving them the lead in the first inning, a stunning catch against the wall in left-center field to rob Freeman – but then a routine fly ball that spilled jet fuel on a five-run rally.

“Just like any other loss, these things don’t go away. There are battle scars along the way. When my career is over, I hope there will be battle scars, but also many victories along the way.”

It could take a while for the wound caused by that fifth inning to heal.

It started when Kiké Hernandez cracked a leadoff single against Gerrit Cole, breaking his no-hitter. Then Tommy Edman threw a fly up the middle, whereupon Judge came in, reached down and grabbed it. Maybe he looked up too soon. Either way, the ball bounced off his glove.

And a Yankee team that was leading 5-0 suddenly felt extremely vulnerable against the mighty Dodgers.

What happened next could be partially described as “this is baseball” moments, but not entirely.

With two on, Will Smith hit a grounder into the hole at shortstop. Anthony Volpe's best chance with an out was a throw to third. But Hernandez created a distraction in the basepaths. Volpe bounced the ball to third down.

Jazz Chisholm couldn't win it. Poor throw and no help at the other end.

Bases loaded.

Cole – who manager Aaron Boone said was “really brilliant” – almost shot out of the game, eliminating No. 9 hitter Gavin Lux and Shohei Ohtani. Then Betts hit a ball down the first base line.

He rolled toward the sack, turned back toward the infield, and zigzagged the way a ball does when it's hit awkwardly. First baseman Anthony Rizzo had no choice but to freeze and let the spinning ball come to rest.

But Cole, now in the middle of a grueling 38-pitch inning, failed to get off the mound and cover first. Betts ran down the line. And earned the strangest RBI single.

“I think Gerrit just didn't react fast enough to get over what he was going through that inning, kind of exhausted and almost fighting out of it,” Boone said. “Because of the spin, Rizz had to make sure they secured it somehow.

“It’s hard to run through that ball spinning like that.”

And then the Dodgers pounced.

Freeman hit a two-run single. Teoscar Hernandez scored two more points with a two-run double. The 5-0 lead and the hope that it would return to Los Angeles for Game 6 were gone.

The rest seemed irrelevant: The Yankees grabbed a 6-5 lead but gave it up by two in the eighth, with the Dodgers taking advantage of a spent Yankee bullpen to drain two championship-caliber sacrifice flies.

But the devil was in the fundamentals, which often haunted the Yankees during a 94-win regular season and into the postseason.

They'll probably win Game 1 if Gleyber Torres doesn't butcher a throw from the outfield and give the Dodgers a crucial extra base late in the inning. They almost certainly win Game 5 if the fifth inning was a clean score.

That's the difference between followers and champions.

“You can’t give teams like that extra outs,” Judge said. “They will capitalize – they won’t miss their one-two-three at the top of the rankings. If you give them a chance, when the guys are on base, they're going to capitalize on it. You have to limit the mistakes.

“That’s what matters. You don't give your opponent a chance to breathe. Back to Game 1, there were a few mistakes that turned everything upside down for us. The fifth inning – that hurt us there.

“Even though we were able to fight back and hold on, you can’t give them extra outs.”

And so the Yankees, from Chisholm to Boone and a few others, were left to use the same word: Heartbroken.

They insisted they were a tight-knit group, a special group that kept the clubhouse doors closed for 45 minutes after the game to talk about how special it was.

When they dispersed, the Dodgers already had the trophy in their hands and were a few hundred feet further into the arena.

Better luck next year? Soto could be a loser. Torres is a free agent. The bullpen's brilliance when it matters most is difficult to replicate.

No, what's probably most important is how the Yankees respond to this lack of attention to detail, these cracks that appear at the worst times.

Find out what makes the difference when October turns into November.

Judge was asked what he would take away from this first World Series experience. He paused for 15 seconds and thought about his answer.

“A lot of different things, to be honest,” he says. “The chance to see Yankee Stadium rock and roll like that was very special. To see the city come to life. To compete with these guys, you fight through so much bullshit all season long – the ups and downs, winning streaks, losing streaks, tough decisions that don't go the way you want them to.

“Everything that comes down to these last few games like this.”

Maybe they'll be better next time.

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