The giant franchises met in the World Series 11 times between 1941 and 1981. But since then, they had been limited to 16 interleague games against each other before this weekend. And the last time they met, the Yankees and Dodgers didn’t even look good.
“I’m glad we can wear our normal uniforms this time instead of the weird black and white ones we wore the last time this happened,” Yankees starting ace Gerrit Cole said Friday afternoon while discussing the three games. series in August 2019 in which players wore alternate jerseys for the short-lived Players’ Weekend.
While New York’s iconic road grays and Los Angeles home whites make everyone look the part, teams are still hard at work playing more like them.
On the surface, however, everything seemed fine.
The Yankees topped last month, winning 19 of 29 games going into Friday and building the best record in the majors since May 2. The Dodgers, after beating the Yankees, 8-4, in the series opener Friday night, were tied with Arizona. for the best record in the National League (35-23).
Those are the results spending teams like the Yankees ($277 million) and Dodgers ($226 million) expect when they spend. However, the first two months of this season saw clubs test the depth provided by those huge payrolls. When that depth wasn’t enough either, they both began to improvise.
Managers Aaron Boone and Dave Roberts have found themselves on the sidelines, playing mix and match, with the Yankees leading the majors in days lost on the disabled listwith 747, and the Dodgers in third place, with 636.
However, this weekend could be a turning point for the Yankees, who trail behind Tampa Bay and Baltimore in a highly competitive AL East. On Friday, the Yankees activated designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton and third baseman Josh Donaldson from the disabled list. Perhaps now they can be less reliant on team captain Aaron Judge, who was announced the American League player of the month for May on Friday after he hit .342 with 12 home runs, 25 RBIs and 23 runs scored in the month while leading the majors in slugging percentage.
The returning sluggers participated in the series-opening loss and both produced. Donaldson hit Clayton Kershaw’s slider over the left-center field fence in his first plate appearance since April 5, then hit a second home run in the ninth. Stanton also homered off Kershaw, a 417-foot home run in the fourth off a lazy slider.
All of that was too little too late as Luis Severino, the Yankees’ injury-prone right starter who took the mound for the third time this season, was torched for six runs in the first inning by the Dodgers.
Still, both the beauty and the challenge of a season come with what follows, and bringing back two previous MVP Award winners (Donaldson in 2015; Stanton in 2017) would lift any team’s spirits.
“The guy’s been a wrecking machine his whole life,” Boone said of Donaldson, now 37 and limited by a series of leg injuries. “He still has the power of him, his twitch, the bat speed of him. I know he is there. When he’s right, he’s a great player.”
Stanton, also prone to pulls and strains, will be limited to DH duties for the first two weeks as the Yankees make sure to “build him up properly” and Boone works to “move the puzzle.”
With the team committed to rookie Anthony Volpe at shortstop, and Gleyber Torres playing well at second base, Boone will have to get creative to find time on the field for Donaldson, while keeping DJ LeMahieu, the team’s utility infielder. , ready.
Having a few days where he has too many options for his roster card is something of a challenge for Boone, but it’s a welcome change from the past few months.
“Hopefully everyone is doing their thing and hitting and you know every day you’re sitting there as a good, dangerous player,” Boone said. “We have been working hard to be whole and healthy”
With a tattered starting rotation, the Dodgers can relate.
Right starter Dustin May (right elbow) is out for the foreseeable future, while lefty Julio Urías (hamstring) is scheduled for a 30-pitch bullpen session Saturday afternoon as the Dodgers determine their next move. with the. Then there’s Noah Syndergaard, the veteran right-hander who signed a one-year contract this year as a bridge to the next wave of young pitchers. Instead, he seems to be a bad start or two away from losing his job.
After the Nationals treated Syndergaard like a batting practice pitcher on Wednesday, increasing his ERA to 6.54, Syndergaard was dejected. “I would give my hypothetical firstborn to go back to the old me,” he said. “I’ll do everything I can to get back to that.”
Although Roberts confirmed Friday that Syndergaard will make his next start in Cincinnati on Wednesday, nothing is promised after that. And while Kershaw held the Yankees to two runs in seven innings on Friday, a notable improvement after his 5.55 ERA in May, the Dodgers were expected to send a pair of rookie starters, Michael Grove and Bobby Miller, to the games. Saturday and Sunday against New York.
Miller, a 2020 first-round pick starting Sunday, has impressed so far, winning his first two starts since being called up.
“He has a special talent in his arm,” said Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations. “Just a full repertoire of pitches that gives him a chance to take on any hitter in the league. Obviously, it all comes down to execution. The things are there. The desire to be great is there. And this experience that he is gaining is invaluable.”
The Dodgers’ lineup has also featured far fewer options, though that was by design.
Justin Turner, a mainstay at third base, was allowed to walk as a free agent after the Dodgers won 111 games last year. The same was true for outfielder Cody Bellinger and shortstop Trea Turner, neither of whom were retained as the Dodgers worked to trim payroll in a year in which they were expected to step back and regroup.
Then, when Gavin Lux, Trea Turner’s projected replacement at shortstop, hurt his knee in spring training, things got really dangerous. Entering the year, few could have predicted that Mookie Betts, the team’s Gold Glove right fielder, would make six starts at shortstop.
Somehow, though, a team with a middling rotation, a bad bullpen and a lineup that seems a lot less ferocious than it has in recent years has managed to get the better of its opponents.
The Yankees saw it firsthand on Friday. But they welcome that kind of challenge.
“We’re excited to be here and I’m excited to pitch here,” said Cole, who is scheduled to start Saturday night. “It’s always fun to come here, but especially as a Yankee, it’s history that goes back to New York. It just makes it that little bit more special.”
And even if neither team has looked good this season, both are gearing up for October baseball, just like always. A June series against each other serves as a convenient test of their readiness.
“There are games, series, throughout the 162-game season that feel a little bit bigger,” Boone said. “I think it’s great. Whether it’s when we go to London or when you play the Field of Dreams game, there’s something really cool about that in the 162 routine which, you know, obviously with the tradition of these two teams, the interleague I think a weekend in June, Dodgers-Yankees, has a good sound to it and probably gives you a little extra juice.”
