World Series Game 3 Takeaways: The Dodgers take a 3-0 lead over the Yankees

Shifting the 2024 World Series to Yankee Stadium for Game 3 hasn’t slowed the Los Angeles Dodgers down one bit.

Freddie Freeman held Los Angeles on its way back for the third straight game, and Walker Buehler and the Dodgers combined to smooth out the New York Yankees’ offense once again.

How did the Dodgers push the Yankees to the brink of elimination, and is there any hope left for the home team in Game 4? We’ve got it all covered, from in-match updates and analysis to post-final takeaways to what’s next for each team.

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Los Angeles Dodgers 4, New York Yankees 2

Dodgers: The Yankees were supposed to have the starting advantage in this series. The Dodgers completely obliterated it. Walker Buehler pitched five scoreless innings in Game 3 on Monday night — after Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed just one run in 6⅓ innings in Game 2 and Jack Flaherty allowed two runs in 5⅓ innings in Game 1. The three combined for a 1.62 ERA, the lowest by the first The team has had three World Series starters since Cleveland in 2016.

Of the three, Bühler is perhaps the most enigmatic. He returned from his second Tommy John surgery midway through the year, struggled through a 5.38 ERA in 16 regular season starts and appeared to be missing his powerful fastball.

But he found an effective curveball against the New York Mets in the National League Championship Series and finally got his lively fastball back on Monday night. The Dodgers were now one win away from their first championship in four years and first full-season title since 1988. At a most crucial juncture, starting pitching had transformed from the Dodgers’ greatest uncertainty into one of their greatest strengths. What worries them most is the overall health of first baseman and No. 3 hitter Freddie Freeman, who is no longer single at all. -Alden Gonzalez

yankees: The Yankees face a 3-0 series deficit because their offense, led by the American League’s reigning MVP, is gone. On Monday, New York produced four hits, five runs and boos from the home crowd. Giancarlo Stanton went 2 for 4. The rest of the team finished 3 for 27. Aaron Judge went 0 for 3 with a strikeout and a walk, raising his Series tally to 1 for 12 with seven strikeouts. Stanton’s double in the fourth inning Monday was New York’s only extra-time hit. The Yankees went 1-for-4 with runners in scoring position and left eight runners on base. The rallies have ended with a questionable serve (Stanton was thrown out at home in the fourth inning) and a questionable hit three times (Gleyber Torres takes a pitch above the strike zone with two runners on base in the seventh inning). This much is certain: The Yankees, who have managed to score seven runs in this Series, are another quiet night away from drifting. –Jorge Castillo

The big question for Game 4: Will this really be a sweep? While oddsmakers favored the Dodgers in this series, it was by a slight margin, and evaluators saw it as more of a coin toss. After three games, the Dodgers have shut down Yankees hitters so completely that a Los Angeles crown seems inevitable.

Entering this Series, MLB teams led 3-0 40 times. Thirty-one of them ended in raids. The Yankees can only hope that Luis Gil shows up and plays better than Carlos Rodon and Clark Schmidt did in Games 2 and 3. Even then, considering how New York’s offense has performed this series, the likelihood of Los Angeles using a complete game on Tuesday doesn’t look so bad.

The only baseball team to rally from a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series is the 2004 Boston Red Sox – against the Yankees. New York needs a miracle at this point. The way the Yankees are playing, it’s hard to imagine what that looks like. –Jeff Passan

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