It was 5-0...
There are certain memories that remain, blessedly, locked away in the corners of a Yankees fan’s brain. We don’t talk about them. We don’t think about them. If they show up on a highlight reel, we flinch, scroll, or suddenly remember something important in the other room.
But, for better or worse, the Yankees are back in Los Angeles this week, and so are those memories.
Specifically, Game 5. Inning 5. A five-run lead, in a win-or-go-home World Series game, at Yankee Stadium. A chance to send the series back to LA. A chance to maybe, just maybe, do something only one team in history had ever done, come back from 0-3 in a postseason series. Against the mighty Dodgers, no less.
It was 5-0. Immaculate vibes in the Bronx. The ghosts of Yankee Stadium, the ones who watched Ruth and Gehrig and Jeter and Pettitte parade through Octobers, stirred that night in Game 5. You could feel it. Five runs up, Bronx roaring, the pinstripes puffed out like it was 1998 again. For a moment, it felt like the old magic was back, like the ghosts had finally woken from a decade-long slumber, dusted off their rings, and decided to help the Yankees remember who they were.
And then… baseball happened.
Aaron Judge misplayed a simple fly ball in center. Gerrit Cole/ Anthony Rizzo (you decide) forgot to cover first base. Anthony Volpe tried to make a throwing error, and in a span of 20 minutes, what looked like the beginning of something historic turned into a blooper reel set to funeral music.
5-0 became 5-5 became 7-6 became the end of everything.
That was seven months ago. Seven months since Walker Buehler struck out Alex Verdugo, and a stadium somewhere in Southern California lit up while one in the Bronx fell silent. Seven months since the Yankees’ first World Series appearance in 15 years ended not with a bang, but with a very dumb, very painful series of avoidable mistakes.
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The Yankees are back in LA. Not for Game 6, like they hoped. They don’t have Juan Soto; he’s in Queens now, because of course he is. They don’t have Gerrit Cole, who’s out for the rest of the 2025 season.
And still, the Yankees, sitting on a record of 35-20, have been one of the best teams in the American League. Sometimes, the best team in baseball. Over the last three weeks, they’ve looked unstoppable. They are on a five-game win streak, have won nine of their last ten, and haven’t lost two consecutive games since the first week of May.
Aaron Judge continues producing as the MVP that he is. The pitching has been incredible, and all their offseason acquisitions—Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger, Max Fried, and Devin Williams — are finding their own.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers, yes, still good, have, surprisingly or not, looked mortal. Their rotation has been held together with duct tape. Blake Snell’s hurt. Tyler Glasnow’s hurt. Roki Sasaki’s hurt. (Among others)
And yet, somehow, they’re still in first place in the NL West. Just like always. But so are the Yankees (in AL East).
First place vs. first place. Ohtani vs. Judge. Two juggernauts with rosters built for October, sharing a field in late May. And whether anyone says it out loud or not, we all know, this is the rematch that was supposed to happen, just not in June. You’ll excuse the rest of us if we have a few flashbacks in the process.
This is not the trip to LA they had in mind seven months ago. But they’re here. Coming in hot. And maybe, just maybe, ready to finish what they couldn’t start.
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