The Yankees can’t hide from their mistakes against a fellow heavyweight.

LOS ANGELES – Hello Yankees, you are no longer in Kansas City.

Or Cleveland.

The light part of the postseason schedule is over and on the other side of the World Series field is a reflection of the Yankees, just one that plays the game more cleanly. One that will surely make the Yankees pay for transgressions in a way that the less powerful and less stellar Royals and Guardians could not.

The Yankees made mistakes in the field and on the bases and couldn’t overcome it. Not in the wall of noise that was Dodger Stadium in Game 1 of the World Series. Not when the Yankees were able to survive a late 10th plate appearance by Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts and then the Dodgers still had Freddie Freeman to do a Kirk. Gibson imitation.

The Yankees had taken a 3-2 lead in the top of the tenth thanks in large part to the leg of Jazz Chisholm. But Jake Cousins ​​walked Gavin Lux with one out in the bottom of the inning. Tommy Edman then hit a grounder to the middle. Oswaldo Cabrera had come on to defend in the tenth after Gleyber Torres was substituted in the ninth. It was a tough setback, but if Cabrera pulls it off, he’ll have a way out somewhere. But the ball escaped him.

That brought Ohtani up with two on the line. In came Néstor Cortés, who had been named to the World Series roster after not pitching since mid-September due to an elbow injury. Ohtani sliced ​​a ball down the left field line and Alex Verudgo made a sensational play diving into the left field corner seats to catch it. But since he was offside, the runners were allowed to advance one base.

So Betts was given a walk to set up a left-handed duel against Freeman. The Dodgers first baseman had not played in two of the last three games of the National League Championship Series against the Mets, both started by lefties, due to a sprained right ankle.

Los Angeles had won Game 1 of the 1988 World Series when Kirk Gibson hit a home run to right field off Dennis Eckersley here at Dodger Stadium and then limped around the bases. Freeman smashed the ball in the same direction on Cortes’ first-pitch fastball for a grand slam.

That made the 6-3 finish in Game 1 of the 120th World Series a heartbreaking one for the Yankees, who helped the Dodgers to this victory.

The Dodgers’ first two runs came off of giveaways.

Juan Soto could not corral a ball that escaped him in the fifth inning and that if played correctly would be caught and held in a double, but he looked for a triple from Enrique Hernández and Torres allowed a shot by Soto to kick away from him and allow him to Ohtani. to add an extra base to his double on the eighth-inning error. Since they were at third, they were both in scoring position with sacrifice flies.

In the top of the 10th, Chisholm singled, stole second, Anthony Rizzo was intentionally walked and Chisholm stole third. Anthony Volpe then hit a slow grounder that shortstop Tommy Edman wobbled as Chisholm scored the tying run. But for some reason Rizzo stopped short of second base and allowed himself to be easily thrown out. Would the Yankees have scored more if he had simply slid safely? We will never know.

But between the errors and Aaron Judge still not hitting (elements the Yankees navigated against weaker AL Central foes) the Yankees advanced. But can they do that here?

Judge was 1-for-5 and struck out in his first three at-bats. It came with two out and two on in the ninth and a chance to break the tie after Soto was intentionally walked in front of him. But it came out.

And the Yankees simply can’t overcome their mistakes if Aaron Judge is going to continue to fail on a massive scale in the postseason.

Remember when the question was how much they would walk intentionally. The answer is once so far in the postseason. But on Friday night, Dave Roberts ordered Soto to walk in front of Judge with two outs and a runner on second.

So Judge had a chance to break the tie, but he threw a fly ball to the shortstop. Judge is 6 for 36 in the postseason with 16 strikeouts. He is hitless in eight at-bats with runners in scoring position.

If Judge were hitting like Giancarlo Stanton this October, the Yankees would simply put Judge in Monument Park.

Stanton seemingly changed another postseason game as he has been doing throughout October. Jack Flaherty, the almost Yankee, was outdueling Gerrit Cole. The Yankees trailed 1-0 in the sixth. And Dodger Stadium, where one celebrity after another appears on the scoreboard to implore total noise, was in crisis.

But no one blocks out the noise quite like Stanton. Verbal. Written. Crew.

He fell behind 0-2 with one out and one on in the sixth – a single by Soto led off and a third Judge strikeout in three at-bats followed. Flaherty then hung a curve ball that floated into the inside third a little too deliciously. And Stanton did it: He produced the hardest-hit World Series ball since tracking began in 2016: 116.6 mph. It reached 412 feet deep to the left.

This time, however, Stanton’s power could not make the difference. Because the Yankees still aren’t getting enough from Judge. They persist in playing with a sloppy style. And because they are no longer in Kansas City or Cleveland.

They are in Los Angeles against another superpower that is going to make the Yankees pay for not making mistakes.