The New York Yankees lost the World Series Wednesday night and were subsequently blasted on national television on two of the greatest to ever play for the team.
Former Yankees stars Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez — now analysts for FOX — were left flabbergasted by New York’s performance in Game 5.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever quite seen anything like this, especially in the World Series or a postseason game,” Jeter said. “Look, the Yankees made some mistakes. You can’t make mistakes against a team like the Los Angeles Dodgers.”
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Jeter highlighted the Yankees’ disastrous fifth inning, in which New York committed multiple disastrous errors. AL MVP favorite Aaron Judge, had what appeared to be a routine fly ball bounce off his glove. Meanwhile, 2023 Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole failed to cover first base on what would have been a key out.
Jeter, known as one of the Yankees’ greatest team captains, praised Cole for gritting through the outing and dominating the early parts of the game. His message to the Yankees was simple: “you just cannot make that many mistakes.”
Rodriguez agreed, and took his criticism a step further.
“Cole was great. But that’s not the story,” Rodriguez said. “I mean, this is one of the greatest meltdowns that I’ve ever seen in 40 years and it’s unfortunate because the Dodgers are the better team.”
Cole pitched 6.2 innings in Game 5 and gave up five runs. All five were unearned runs in the fifth inning.
It‘s only been 15 years since the Yankees last won a World Series title. But for the 27-time champs, that sort of game can be considered a drought. The team’s last title came in 2009, when both Jeter and Rodriguez were still on the team.
