We’ve finally reached Game 1 of the World Series after a long week off. The Yankees and Dodgers will face off in their first championship match in forty-three years, and Gerrit Cole will face Jack Flaherty in a few hours.
The Yankees have finally revealed the lineup that will play in Los Angeles after announcing their World Series roster earlier this afternoon:
2B Gleyber Torres
RF Juan Soto
CF Aaron Judge
DH Giancarlo Stanton
3B Jazz Chisholm Jr.
1B Anthony Rizzo
SS Anthony Volpe
C Austin Wells
LF Alex Verdugo
The team really used this identical lineup for their decisive victory in Game 5 of the ALCS. Don’t fix something that isn’t broken.
Every time the lineup changes, Aaron Boone maintains the powerful Aaron Judge/Giancarlo Stanton 3/4 combination, which gives Dodgers pitchers a terrible first four batters to deal with. The Yankees can more easily stack left-handed hitters in the second part of their lineup because of LA’s relative paucity of left-handed pitchers.
Even if the top of the order appears to be fearsome, the rest of the lineup is still up for debate. Austin Wells and Jazz Chisholm Jr. had been absent for weeks. Against the Dodgers’ right-heavy staff, both left-handed swingers will be hoping to get going. At least Anthony Rizzo fared well in the ALCS, despite the fact that he is still healing from breaking two fingers last month. Despite having an OPS below.600 in October, Alex Verdugo is still the team’s starting left fielder.
The Yankees don’t really need a lineup that is flawless from top to bottom given how good their stars are. On nights when their best players aren’t producing, they simply need a little more output here and there. If we’re lucky, the Yankees can easily win Game 1 if someone from the Chisholm/Wells/Verdugo slump brigade (along with Judge, who was quiet again at the end of the ALCS) breaks out.
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