Yankees have a busload of momentum heading into World Series rematch against Dodgers

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Aaron Judge and the New York Yankees will have a good head of steam as they bus 30 miles up the 5 Freeway for their World Series rematch against the Los Angeles Dodgers this weekend.

New York's 1-0 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday night gave the AL East leaders 16 wins in 20 games.

Clarke Schmidt continued a six-week stretch of superb starting pitching with six shutout innings, and Anthony Volpe drove in the only run with a first-inning sacrifice fly as the Yankees (35-20) completed a three-game sweep and sent the Angels (25-30) to their fifth straight loss.

A Yankees rotation that lost ace Gerrit Cole to season-ending elbow surgery and has two other starters — Luis Gil and Marcus Stroman — on the injured list has a major league-best 2.54 ERA over the last 40 games and has limited opponents to one run or less in 22 of those starts.

Left-hander Ryan Yarbrough allowed one run and two hits in six innings of Monday night's 5-1 win over the Angels, left-hander Carlos Rodon gave up five hits in seven scoreless innings of Tuesday's 3-2 win, and Schmidt, a right-hander, gave up four hits in his six shutout innings Wednesday night.

Left-hander Max Fried, who is 7-0 with a 1.29 ERA in 11 starts, will pitch Friday night's series opener against the Dodgers, and right-hander Will Warren, who is 3-2 with a 4.09 ERA in 11 starts, is scheduled to pitch Saturday.

''They've given us a chance to win every single night,'' said Yankees reliever Mark Leiter Jr., who notched his second save with a scoreless ninth inning Wednesday night.

''Each guy is going out there and doing it a little different way, putting their own spin on it, which is great for us, because it gives them a different look for six or seven innings, and we get to do our thing with a different look for the last couple innings. You're only as good as your starting pitching, generally, and they've been great.''

The NL West-leading Dodgers (34-22) have three frontline starters — Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki — and four high-leverage relievers — Blake Treinen, Evan Phillips, Michael Kopech and Kirby Yates — on the injured list.

But they still have plenty of star power, with Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, who have combined to win five MVP awards, plus Teoscar Hernández and Will Smith at the top of their lineup.

''Yeah, it will feel big,'' Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of the matchup. ''Now, we won't go in treating it any differently, but we played the Subway Series (against the New York Mets) last week, and there was a lot of hype for that. I think these are good things for our guys to play in and experience.''

The series will feature two of the best players in baseball in Judge and Ohtani, both coming off an MVP season.

Judge, who has won two American League MVPs, leads the AL in batting average (.391), on-base percentage (.488), slugging percentage (.739), OPS (1.227) and hits (81) — numbers that prompted the Angels to intentionally walk Judge twice in the first two innings on Wednesday night. He is tied for third in the majors in home runs (18) and ranks fourth in RBIs (47).

Ohtani, who has won three MVPs — his first two with the Angels in 2021 and 2023 — leads the major leagues with 20 homers and 59 runs and ranks third in OPS (1.042). He produced baseball's first 50-50 season with 54 homers and 59 stolen bases in 2024.

The two-way star, who has a 38-19 record and 3.01 ERA in 86 starts over five seasons but did not pitch while recovering from Tommy John surgery in 2024, is also on track to return to the mound sometime after the All-Star break.

''I think Judge has been the best hitter in the sport now for a number of years, but what Shohei does with his speed and, when he's healthy, being an ace on the mound, and his ability to swing the bat … we haven't seen that,'' Boone said.

''Ohtani, when you add in the pitching element, is just so unique, like nothing we've ever seen in this game.''

Freeman, the Dodgers first baseman, hit four homers, including a walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning of Game 1, and drove in 12 runs to earn World Series MVP honors last October.

Freeman's two-run single also keyed a five-run rally in the fifth inning that helped the Dodgers overcome a 5-0 deficit in their series-clinching 7-6 victory in Game 5 at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees held Ohtani to two hits in 19 at-bats (.105) and no RBIs in the World Series, but he played the final three games with a dislocated left shoulder that was surgically repaired after the season.

''You have to execute (pitches) at a high level against him, or we're backing up bases or getting a new ball,'' Boone said. ''We did a pretty good job against him in the World Series last year, but he's also hit some big homers against us.''

The Yankees will have a Dodgers nemesis that they didn't have last October in veteran first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, who signed a one-year, $12.5 million deal last winter and is batting .347 with an .899 OPS, five homers and 27 RBIs in his first 55 games with the Yankees.

A former Arizona Diamondbacks and St. Louis Cardinals slugger, Goldschmidt has a .283 average, .872 OPS, 35 homers and 109 RBIs in 163 career games against the Dodgers and a .308 average, .928 OPS, 19 homers and 50 RBIs in 77 games in Dodger Stadium.

''I would say he's more than an X-factor,'' Boone said of Goldschmidt, who led off Wednesday night's game with a double and scored on Volpe's sacrifice fly. ''He's one of our dudes.''

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb