EAST LANSING- The leaves are orange and yellow in East Lansing, and that can mean only one thing, it’s time for the Fall Classic.
After one of the best Postseason baseball fans have been able to watch in recent history. Two teams are remaining, as the coastal powerhouse of baseball will meet in the World Series for the first time since 1981.
It’s Yankees-Dodgers, it’s Judge-Ohtani, it’s New York-Los Angeles, and it is an absolute box office matchup for Major League Baseball, so let’s dive right into predictions and things to watch for in this historical and hyped-up series.
The New York Yankees
Let’s start with the American League, shall we? The New York Yankees are going to the World Series for the first time since 2009. They went 7-2 in the ALDS and ALCS en route to their 41st pennant in franchise history, as they clinched the American League title for the first time in the Aaron Judge/ Aaron Boone era and just a year after trading for 25-year-old superstar Juan Soto.
Speaking of Soto, he sent New York to the World Series on the back of his go-ahead three-run homer in the top of the tenth of Game Five in Cleveland to give the Yanks a 5-2 lead. It was the fourth time in the last eight seasons the Yankees knocked out the Guardians in the playoffs, as they lost this series four games to one.
Soto dazzled all series, hitting three home runs, driving in six runs while hitting to the tune of a 1.371 OPS in the five games.
This still wasn’t enough to take home MVP in the series, as this generation’s version of Mr. October in the Bronx had his shining moment in pinstripes this past week.
Giancarlo Stanton took home ALCS MVP honors with his four home runs and seven RBI, with an OPS of 1.222. All four of Stanton’s home runs in the series came in the sixth inning or later, and he hit the clutch game-tying home run in Game 5 that would eventually send the game to extra innings.
The likely MVP of the American League this past season woke up a little bit in this series, as Aaron Judge finished the five games with two home runs and six RBI but only batting .167 with a .761 OPS. Judge has an OPS of .646 in the Postseason since the 2019 season, and if New York hopes to beat the powerhouse Dodgers, he will absolutely need to be better.
Anthony Volpe, Anthony Rizzo, and Gleyber Torres all provided huge hits and timely offense in the ALCS and will continue to be huge factors for the Yankees headed into the World Series.
Austin Wells and Jazz Chislom continued to trouble throughout the series and will need to get hot against L.A. for the Yankees as well.
New York’s pitching came up huge for them in the ALCS as well, both starters and bullpen.
Carlos Rodon provided two big starts in Games 1 and 5, as the ace Gerrit Cole was only called upon in Game 2, thanks to the Yankees making short work in the series.
Clarke Schmidt and Luis Gil got the starts for New York in Games 3 and 4, expect to see Cole, Rodon, Schmidt, and Gil as the four Yankees starting pitchers in the World Series as well.
The Yankees bullpen didn’t fare as well as they did against the Royals, but Luke Weaver, Tommy Kahnle, and unlikely heroes such as Tim Hill and Mark Leiter Jr were able to do enough to help New York win the series. Clay Holmes, who struggled with a 10.13 ERA in the ALCS, will look to bounce back against Los Angeles.
There’s no doubt that the Yankees will have their hands full with the Dodgers, and that they are a much better team than both the Royals and the Guardians, but the Yankees’ dominance throughout their first two rounds cannot be denied. They will now get some rest before Game 1 on Friday, and they have their ace Gerrit Cole listed as the probable starter for the opening game in Chavez-Ravine.
The Los Angeles Dodgers
For the fourth time in the last eight seasons, the Los Angeles Dodgers have won the National League pennant.
After defeating their rival Padres in a hard-fought five-game series in the NLDS, they finished off the Mets at home on Sunday night in Game 6 to win the series 4-2. It’s their first time appearing in the Fall Classic since the COVID-shortened season in 2020, and just a year after acquiring the Unicorn, Shohei Ohtani.
The stars shined in the championship series for the Dodgers, as former MVPS Ohtani and Mookie Betts each drilled two home runs in the series while Ohtani drove in nine runs with an OPS of 1.185.
Betts drove in six runs of his own, while only finishing three points lower than Ohtani in OPS, with a 1.182 for the series.
Neither of these stars shined brighter than the unlikely hero and NLCS MVP Tommy Edman, who drove in a series-high eleven runs in six games, including four in the series clincher in Game 6.
Edman was eleven for twenty-seven in the series, and it seemed like whenever the Dodgers needed a big hit, he was there.
The Dodgers bullpen dazzled all series long as well, as Blake Treinen, Evan Phillips, Andrew Casparius, Edgardo Henriquez, Anthony Banda and Michael Kopech all came up huge for L.A. Dodgers starters did just enough as well, as Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Walker Buehler, and Jack Flaherty all played roles in beating the Mets.
The Dodgers will need all the help they can get from their great pitching depth coming up in this series, as the Yankees offense has delivered clutch hitting, early, late, and anywhere in between in most of their games played this Postseason.
One thing of note is that the Dodgers have only carried one left-handed pitcher on their roster throughout the playoffs, Banda.
Former MVP and World Series champion, Freddie Freeman has been nursing a sprained right ankle, and it has shown as he struggled through the NLCS, only producing an OPS of .377 in the four games he played.
If Freeman can heat back up and find that October adrenaline, he could play a huge unexpected x-factor for the Dodgers in this series.
Teoscar Hernández also struggled in the championship series for L.A. but I expect him to come up big in the World Series, as he has 17 home runs and 47 RBI in seventy-nine career games against the Yankees, mostly in the six years he spent with the Toronto Blue Jays. If Freeman and Hernández can get back to the level of play we’re accustomed to seeing from these two players, Los Angeles will be in a good spot.
The Dodgers have announced a starter for Game 1 on Tuesday, giving the ball to former Tiger Jack Flaherty.
Flaherty has struggled in two games so far this Postseason with an ERA of 7.20, and it will be the second start he makes against the Yankees in his career.
There are certainly a few questions the Dodgers need to answer before Game 1 at Dodger Stadium this Friday, their defensive configuration, with Freeman struggling. Dave Roberts will have a decision to make between Muncy and Freeman.
Expect the Dodgers manager to be creative to get all his lefties at-bats against the Yankees, especially late in games.
The Final Prediction
This has been an unbelievable season in Major League Baseball, and it has been an absolute honor and privilege to cover the league and share my opinions here for Impact.
I deeply appreciate anyone and everyone who ever cares to read my stories and hear my opinions on the greatest game in the world. Baseball fans are getting an absolute treat with this matchup, this Yankees-Dodgers World Series has been in the making for years.
This truly is Goliath vs Goliath. The top seed in each League has made the World Series for just the third time since 1995, and it is the two powerhouse cities in the country for all the marbles.
I believe this series has the chance to go the distance. Both teams are so talented with incredible superstars and an unfair amount of depth, depth that will be tested on both sides the deeper this series goes.
The Yankees have struggled with lefty pitching all year, something the Mets had an abundance of. The Dodgers do not. The Yankees also have not faced a lineup nearly as talented as the Dodgers throughout this Postseason.
The Dodgers do have home-field in this series, but the Yankees had the best road record of any team in baseball in the regular season, and the only team to reach 50 road wins, including a 4-1 record in the playoffs.
This World Series really is a coin flip. A coin flip between the two best and most talented teams in baseball, and it will come down to whose superstars shine brighter, and whose depth can hold it together long enough.
However when it comes down to what it takes to win in the playoffs, it’s great pitching, timely hitting, and big home runs.
I’m taking the team that led the league in home runs the regular season, the team that has fifteen fewer innings on their arms in this Postseason and has allowed one less earned run per game.
I am picking the New York Yankees to win the 2024 World Series in six games.
Game 1: NY
Game 2: LA
Game 3: NY
Game 4: LA
Game 5: NY
Game 6: NY
