NEW YORK — Some rivalries don’t need October stakes to feel like the playoffs.
To open the second half of the season, the Dodgers returned to Yankee Stadium for the first time since they walked away as the 2024 world champions.
In a tense environment in the Bronx, Friday’s opener was a tight nail-biter until Max Muncy slammed his 18th home run of the year, a go-ahead shot off Gerrit Cole, and lifted the Dodgers to a 2-1 win. Saturday’s rematch was postponed due to heavy rain, pushing the finale into a Sunday doubleheader. Los Angeles took the afternoon matinée, 8-2, behind an impressive complete game from Yoshinobu Yamamoto. New York grabbed the series finale after Jazz Chisholm hit a go-ahead solo homer in the eighth inning for a 2-1 Yankees win.
For now, the Dodgers secured the edge. If these two powerhouses meet again this year, it will be in a rematch of the 2024 Fall Classic.
Here are my takeaways from a revealing weekend in the Bronx.
1. Yamamoto Goes The Distance In Marquee Matchup
(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
Yoshinobu Yamamoto vs. Cam Schlittler went toe-to-toe in the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader representing two of the top starting pitchers in baseball. Though both arms had dazzling stuff, it was Yamamoto and his experience that came out on top. Schlittler showed why he’s elite in this league, but he also displayed how much he still has to learn.
Yamamoto (10-6, 2.78 ERA) pitched the first complete game of his career — in the regular season. He notched a couple of those during the Dodgers’ special playoff run last year, helping Los Angeles win the World Series for the second consecutive year. Yamamoto was extremely efficient on Sunday. The 27-year-old right-hander threw just 28 pitches after three innings, and he needed 102 pitches to finish off the Yankees. Yamamoto allowed two earned runs and four hits with seven strikeouts over nine innings.
Schlittler (9-6, 2.20 ERA) and his three fastballs (four-seamer, cutter and sinker), though excellent, could only overpower Los Angeles for so long. Dodgers hitters fouled off pitch after pitch, spoiling his afternoon and forcing his pitch count to climb up to 98 after just 4.1 innings. Schlittler threw his only offspeed pitch, a curveball that averaged 87.5 mph, just 7% of the time. The 26-year-old right-hander, making his 35th career start in his second season in the big leagues, needed to mix in his curveball more to keep opposing hitters off balance.
2. Yankees Offense Forgot To Show Up
(Photo by Caleb Bowlin/Getty Images)
Since Judge went on the injured list on June 2, the Yankees are scoring on average one run per game. Without him, the Yankees are batting .195 with runners in scoring position, which is the worst in the majors in that span. Yankees manager Aaron Boone has insisted that this season doesn’t compare to 2023, when Judge slammed into the right field wall at Dodger Stadium, tore a ligament in his right big toe, missed 56 games, and the Yankees collapsed and missed the postseason for the first time since 2016. This year’s club is more talented and capable of surviving Judge’s absence, Boone said.
On paper, this year’s Yankee offense is better than 2023’s everyday lineup. But both units have shown similar patterns of prolonged slumps and an inability to hit against some of the league’s best pitchers.
They struggled against Yamamoto on Sunday. In the series opener, they struggled against Dodgers right-hander Roki Sasaki, who came into his start with a 5.33 ERA in 81 innings pitched this season. To be sure, Sasaki was dealing on Friday, throwing his fastest pitch of the season at 102 mph in the first inning. But the Yankees will need to overpower elite pitchers if they want to end their 17-year championship drought, and particularly without Judge, this offense hasn’t looked capable of being up for the challenge.
3. Boone’s Trust In Cole Backfires
(Photo by Michael Urakami/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
Yankees veteran ace Gerrit Cole looked terrific in the series opener against the Dodgers, his first time facing Los Angeles since his costly mental mistake led to five unearned runs in Game 5 of the 2024 World Series. Through six scoreless innings on Friday, Cole held the Dodgers to just three hits and permitted no walks. Cole started the seventh inning with a 1-0 lead on 90 pitches, but things went sideways after he began the frame by walking Mookie Betts.
Immediately, Boone walked to the mound to check whether Cole was gassed. He asked his ace if he could go and get the next batter, Max Muncy. Cole said, of course. Boone went back into the dugout. And on the seventh pitch of a tough at-bat, Muncy took Cole deep for a towering two-run home run to right that gave the Dodgers a 2-1 lead they would never relinquish. After the loss, Boone took responsibility for leaving Cole in too long.
“That’s on me,” said Boone, who is in his ninth season managing the Yankees. “Obviously, in hindsight, I probably should grab him there.”
Cole is 3-5 with a 3.93 ERA in 10 starts and 55 innings pitched this season in his return to the mound after undergoing Tommy John surgery in March 2025. Friday was the first time he threw 100 or more pitches since he faced the Dodgers in Game 5 of the 2024 Fall Classic.
On one hand, the Yankees should be able to trust their ace in the seventh inning. On the other hand, Cole is still working his way back to a normal workload, and the Yankees had a fully-rested bullpen ready to be deployed coming out of the All-Star break.
“It’s nice to push the stamina, get back out there for an extra hitter and keep going for it, keep competing,” Cole said. “That’s a great opportunity physically, and getting deeper into the second half, a good learning opportunity as well.”
4. Reigning MVPs Get Disappointing News
(Photo by New York Yankees/Getty Images)
This weekend in the Bronx should’ve been a heavyweight battle between the reigning American League and National League MVPs. Instead, Yankees three-time MVP Aaron Judge, who has been sidelined since the end of May, and Dodgers four-time MVP Shohei Ohtani both received disappointing news during the three-game rivalry series.
Ohtani (left knee inflammation) will be out of the Dodgers rotation for the foreseeable future, the team announced on Sunday. He will continue to hit as designated hitter. Ohtani was originally scheduled to start on Wednesday against the Phillies, but Los Angeles does not believe their star player pitching is worth the risk. The decision all but eliminates Ohtani from the race for the NL Cy Young award. As it was, he was struggling to rack up enough innings to qualify. Ohtani is 8-2 with a 1.79 ERA in 14 starts and 85.2 innings this year.
“I would say that it’s going to be some time,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of when to expect Ohtani back on the mound. “It’s not going to be a day-to-day thing.”
Judge (fractured rib) underwent further imaging over the All-Star break, but he learned on Friday that those images did not show enough healing to begin baseball activities. New York’s best player will remain restricted indefinitely from physical activity. The most Judge can handle right now is walking on an incline on a treadmill. Though Judge was adamant that he would play again this season, his slow healing progress would seem to indicate that he’s still several weeks away from being a factor at the plate.