Everything was going well for New York Yankees. They kept the season alive by winning on Tuesday. Los Angeles Dodgers in explosive fashion to reduce the series deficit to 3-1. Obviously, the odds were still against them, but the Yankees at least had a way to get back to Los Angeles — if not. make history Completing a comeback we’ve never seen before.

The momentum however continued to swing towards them with the bat of Aaron Judge in the first inning. revived with his first World Series home run. Jazz Chisholm Jr. He followed with a long point in his own court. Giancarlo Stanton joined the party with a home run in the bottom of the third inning. It was 5-0 New York, with their ace, Gerrit Cole, struggling.

Unfortunately, everything came undone in the fifth inning. It all started with Kiké Hernandez recording the first Dodgers hit of the night. A comedy of errors followed. New York’s fifth-inning unraveling opened the door for the Dodgers to complete one of the most bizarre and shocking comebacks in recent memory. They capped it off with a World Series win.

New York committed three defensive errors in the fifth inning, but all three were created uneven. Here’s a ranking of them, from terrible to inexcusable.

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The Dodgers’ first two runners were homered in the fifth inning, with double play candidate Will Smith closing in. Taking a ground ball away from Cole, who was trying to keep the score at 5-0 New York, would be huge. He picked up the ball from the ground, but the result was far from what everyone expected.

Smith hit a soft ball to Anthony Volpe’s right. He fielded cleanly and attempted to power out from third base. A bad throw allowed Kiké Hernandez to get there safely, loading the bases with no one out and opening the door to a Dodgers rally.

I actually think Volpe made a good decision here. His momentum was taking him toward third base and he could catch Hernandez with a good throw. Unfortunately, the shot was bounced and Jazz Chisholm Jr. He failed a difficult jump.

This was definitely a play Volpe should have made, especially considering he’s generally a strong defender, but it wasn’t one of the easiest plays to execute either. Bad, but nowhere near the worst of New York’s fifth-inning errors.

Back-to-back errors by the Yankees allowed the Dodgers to load the bases with no one out, giving them a chance to cut deep into their 5-0 deficit. Despite the mistakes made behind him, Cole was unimpressed. He struck out Gavin Lux and Shohei Ohtani, loading the bases to keep the score at 5-0 and clear a path for himself to get out of the inning. He was one away from the biggest breakout job of the season.

When Mookie Betts hit a ground ball to first base, it felt like Cole was out of the inning. A routine exit was about to be executed, until it didn’t. The Yankees had two ways to get out at first base and were unable to execute either, allowing the Dodgers to score and extend the inning. We all know what happened next.

It might have been a tight play, but if Anthony Rizzo hadn’t looked up and wondered what Gerrit Cole was doing, he probably could have picked up Betts at first base. But the biggest mistake was Cole’s refusal to cover first base on the play. He started to go first, but Rizzo stopped as he was about to throw the ball. Why Cole stopped is anyone’s best guess.

Covering first base as a pitcher when a ground ball is hit to the first baseman is as routine as it gets. Cole even crossed first base on a ground ball to Rizzo, hit by Betts, in the first inning of this game! His refusal to go there may not have been a mistake on the score, but it was a mental mistake that played a big part in costing New York.

Game 5 looked like Aaron Judge’s night. He struggled throughout the end of the season and Finally It showed signs of life. His two-run homer in the first inning was similar to the player we saw in the regular season. He even made an incredible catch in the fourth inning, denying Freddie Freeman another extra-base hit and ending a potential Dodgers rally before it even began. Unfortunately, everything he did before the fifth inning went out the window when the Umpire routinely fumbled the ball out of his hands.

So how does this happen? Tommy Edman threw a lazy ball to midfield and Judge just fumbled it. The referee was there, the ball was about to go into his glove, but he failed to catch it. A game the judge can play in his sleep. This is a play that any MLB player can easily make. The judge just dropped it.

The Dodgers gave themselves some sort of hope by taking the lead with their first hit of the game, but Cole then came back by recording what was sure to be a routine. The umpire’s error gave the Dodgers even more reason to believe, opening the floodgates for what turned out to be the decisive hit of the season.

Worse, it wasn’t a bush in midfield. This was the Judge’s first mistake. season. He saved it for the most routine games on the biggest stage. A shocking mistake that completely changed the season.