Anthony Volpe keeps Yankees season alive in Game 4 win over Dodgers

NEW YORK— Anthony Volpe jogged back to shortstop for the top of the fourth inning and a sellout crowd of just under 50,000 Yankees fans stood up and chanted his name.

VOLPE!

Volpe raised his glove and pumped it skyward, facing the right-center bleacher seats.

That led to another thunderous roar.

The boy from New Jersey, a Yankees fan from his youth, had his October moment.

Volpe hit a grand slam in the previous half inning, a swing that lifted the Yankees from an early 2-1 deficit — in what could have been their final game of the season — to a 5-2 lead.

Coming back from a 3-0 deficit in the World Series won’t be easy. History says it’s impossible. But the Yankees came up with a plan in Game 4 on Tuesday to overcome this seemingly insurmountable deficit against a powerful opponent. one game at a time.

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RESTORING THE GLORY

Volpe, who is famous attended the Yankees’ 2009 World Series parade 15 years ago ensured that this team still has a chance – albeit a small one – to make their own journey through the Canyon of Heroes.

The young shortstop had his fingerprints on the Yankees’ 11-4 victory over the Dodgers, a victory that extended the 2024 World Series by at least one game. A handful of high-leverage bullpen arms and a barrage of insurance runs, via slug, allowed the Yankees to cruise to the final out.

Well, it didn’t always look like a blowout in the making for the Yankees. On the brink of elimination, they stuck to the same script as Game 3 in the first inning Tuesday night. It sucked the life out of the building.

Freddie Freeman crushed his fourth home run in as many World Series games, another two-run shot over the short porch to right, giving the Dodgers an immediate lead in the top of the first inning.

Then, like clockwork, the Yankees stranded runners in scoring position at the bottom of the frame. Juan Soto and Aaron Judge both walked against Dodgers opener Ben Casparius, but Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Giancarlo Stanton bounced out to end the threat.

The Yankees got on the board in the second, but with an asterisk of sorts. Here, Volpe turned his grand slam into a redemption arc.

Volpe walked, stole second and then watched Austin Wells throw a deep ball over his head to center field. Even as the ball bounced off the wall in front of the Yankees’ bullpen, Volpe hesitated, unsure if Kiké Hernández would make a highlight-reel catch.

Moving that shuffle back to second kept Volpe from scoring — and it kept Wells at a double when he might have been able to stretch it to third. No. 9 hitter Alex Verdugo followed with a grounder to first base, putting Volpe on base, but for the sake of playing the hypothetical game, it could have brought Wells home as the tying run.

An inning later, Volpe made up for that in a big way.

He stepped up with the bases loaded and two men out, an excellent scoring opportunity. On the first pitch he saw from reliever Daniel Hudson, Volpe pulled it over the leftfield wall.

It was Volpe’s first postseason home run. He is the first player ever to put the Yankees ahead — while trailing — in a World Series game with a grand slam, per Katie Sharp of Stathead.

However, Los Angeles would not disappear without a fight.

Two innings later, catcher Will Smith hit a solo home run off Gil with an 0-2 fastball. The righthander was pulled a batter later by manager Aaron Boone after walking Tommy Edman.

With lefty Tim Hill in relief, the Dodgers came within one on a fielder’s choice, a double play ball that initially beat Freeman. That run came at the expense of Gil, who conceded four earned over those four-plus frames.

Clinging to a one-run lead with Boone going to his bullpen early, the Yankees needed insurance. Wells provided the first wave with a solo shot into the second deck right, a moonshot that was accompanied by an emphatic bat flip.

Then the Yankees fell five spots on LA in the eighth. Volpe raced home from third on a grounder to first by Verdugo, Gleyber Torres blasted a three-run homer to the opposite field and Judge gained some momentum with an RBI single of his own, flattening Soto.

All the while, the Yankees bullpen hung in there and kept this team alive to see another day.

Clay Holmes, who will enter free agency at the end of this season and was criticized all summer, had four big outs. The former closer retired all four batters he faced.

Mark Leiter Jr., the trade-deadline acquisition who ended the regular season poorly, struck out Shohei Ohtani in the seventh. He remains effective in October and is slowly climbing back into the bullpen circle of confidence.

Luke Weaver rounded out Los Angeles’ roster. He struck out Mookie Betts to end the eighth, mowed down the Dodgers’ 3-4-5 hitters – Freeman, Teoscar Hernández and Max Muncy – in order in the eighth and completed the seven-out save in the ninth.

Lefty Tim Mayza finished the job. The Yankees didn’t have to use Weaver for a third lead in the ninth inning because of the late rush of offense, saving them some bullets as they braced for another must-win game Wednesday night.

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Max Goodman can be reached at [email protected].