Biggest World Series Game 5 questions: Can Yankees make history? Reason for concern about Dodgers’ starter?

The 2024 World Series between the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers will continue on Wednesday night with Game 5 at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees prevailed on Tuesday night, staving off a clean sweep. Another Yankees victory on Wednesday would cause the series to shift back to Los Angeles come Friday. The Dodgers, for their part, can secure their second World Series title in five years with a win.

Before Game 5 can get underway, we here at CBS Sports felt it would be prudent to preview the affair by highlighting the most important question facing each squad. 

Let’s get to it.

Yankees: Can they make history?

You’ve undoubtedly read or heard by now that no team in MLB history has ever recovered from a 3-0 deficit to win the World Series. (The 2004 Boston Red Sox are the only team to ever do it in the LCS round, taking down these Yankees in the process.) Believe it or not, that statistic doesn’t wholly capture the direness of the situation. Most teams who find themselves down 3-0 run out of asphalt sooner than later.

In fact, the Yankees were just the fourth team (out of 25 clubs) to fall behind 3-0 in the World Series and even force a Game 5. Come Wednesday night, they’ll attempt to become the first club to force World Series Game 6 after falling behind 3-0. As MLB’s Thomas Harrington noted, there have been four teams to do it in the LCS round: the 2004 Red Sox, 2020 Houston Astros, 1999 New York Mets, and 1998 Atlanta Braves. The Red Sox prevailed in seven games, while the Astros lost in a seventh contest. 

The Yankees appear to have the right pitcher going for them in Game 5, as ace Gerrit Cole will attempt to shut down the Dodgers bats the way he did in Game 1.

Dodgers: Will Flaherty deliver on regular rest?

Cole’s counterpart, Jack Flaherty, also fared well in Game 1. Our question here is whether or not he’ll be impacted by having to pitch on regular rest. Remember, Flaherty’s rest patterns and velocity were a topic of conversation heading into the World Series, with Dodgers manager Dave Roberts saying the following prior to Game 1.

“I think that, No. 1, we don’t have a different alternative. And, No. 2, we’re going to dig into that as far as the stuff kind of seems like it’s been down on regular [rest]. But that’s kind of the way we set up the rotation, and that’s just the way it’s going to be.”

Historically, Flaherty has actually been at his best throughout his career on regular rest (defined as four days). Even during this season, he posted a 3.15 ERA and a 6.67 strikeout-to-walk ratio on four days’ rest. Those numbers are, of course, worse when his three-inning, eight-run drubbing in NLCS Game 5 (on four days’ rest) against the Mets is incorporated.

More notable is that Flaherty has indeed experienced diminished fastball velocity when working on regular rest. His heater has averaged 92.6 mph when he’s operating on four days’ rest versus 93.3 mph on five or six days’ rest. Flaherty also misses fewer bats (29.4% as opposed to 32% or higher) when he’s pitching on four days’ rest.

Will any of this matter on Wednesday night? That’s to be seen. But Flaherty’s ability to navigate the Yankees lineup will go a long way in determining if the season continues into the weekend.