by Gleyber Torres hit a huge blast in the bottom of the eighth inning of Game 4 of the World Series on Tuesday night to finally give the Yankees some much-needed relief as they extended their season by one day with an 11-4 victory. in the Bronx.
This came after a shaky start to the game for Torres, who was hitless in his first four at-bats from first, then made an error on defense that helped cost the Yankees a run then that they were clinging to a lead in a game. they had to win.
His slow throw to Anthony Volpe at second base in the fifth inning gave the Dodgers a run, as a hobbled Freddie Freeman beat out a potential inning-ending double play.
Tommy Edman scored on the play to cut the Yankees’ lead to one run.
But Torres more than made up for that with a three-run homer in the eighth that gave the Yankees a 10-4 lead.
“It feels good to be able to help out tonight,” Torres said. “We had guys on base and we didn’t score in the first two games. We had to change that.
What happened from a situation where Aaron Boone could have asked Luke Weaver to get the final seven outs of the game before another potential elimination game became a bit of a late blowout, so Tim Mayza entered in the ninth to end the game and rest Weaver for Wednesday.
“Adding and removing Weaver from the game changed everything for us and will help [Wednesday]” said Anthony Rizzo. “That was the biggest part of that home run.”
Tuesday showed what the Torres experience can be like for the Yankees, as he has made more than his fair share of mental errors throughout his career, but his bat still has the potential to change a game.
Torres was terrible at the plate for much of the first half of the season, but he responded well to a move to first and bounced back with a strong second half.
He followed that with a strong ALDS against the Royals, then an even better performance in the ALCS against Cleveland, but he continued to make mistakes on the field.
Manager Aaron Boone went so far as to bench Torres during the season and Aaron Judge recalled the second baseman, who often responds with stretches of strong play.
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And on the brink of elimination, Torres lacked the urgency to throw a quick throw to Volpe, with Freeman rushing to the line to beat Volpe’s throw to first.
Freeman, who also scored for a sixth consecutive World Series game, shook off his bad ankle to advance to first just in time, after initially being called out by first base umpire Chad Fairchild.
With the lead reduced to one run after Will Smith led off the inning with a home run off Luis Gil, the Yankees got an insurance run from Austin Wells, who went deep to start the bottom of the sixth.
And then Torres put the Dodgers away for good in Game 4 in the eighth.
