Ohtani, Judge Slumping With Dodgers on Verge of Winning World ...

NEW YORK—The Los Angeles Dodgers are on the verge of sweeping the New York Yankees in a World Series that has not exactly been an artistic success.

The anticipated matchup of star sluggers—Shohei Ohtani for the Dodgers and Aaron Judge for the Yankees—has thus far been a bust. The pair of projected league MVPs are a combined 2-for-23 in the series with no homers or RBIs.

Ohtani is playing despite a partially dislocated left shoulder suffered when he slid awkwardly trying to steal second in the seventh inning on Sunday in LA. And he looked encumbered at the plate Monday night, rotating the shoulder in between pitches and wincing in pain at times as the Dodgers won, 4-2, to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.

“He did a very nice job of competing,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Ohtani, who’s 1-for-11 in the series. “It didn’t look like it got it got any worse. I just really appreciate him posting tonight.”

Judge has no such excuse. He’s suffering through dismal playoffs for the second time in the past three years. In the World Series he’s 1-for-12 with seven strikeouts. He was 0-for-3 with a walk Monday night.

“I’ve definitely got to step up. I’ve got to do my job,” Judge told a scrum of writers. “Guys around here are doing their job, getting on base. I’m failing them, not backing them up. We’ve got to turn it around.”

Major League Baseball has the matchup it wanted: Dodgers vs Yankees, with the game’s two biggest stars.

Television ratings have been the highest for a World Series in seven years. The first three games, two over the weekend at Dodger Stadium and Monday night at Yankee Stadium, have all been sold out.

But with the Judge-Ohtani subplot fizzling, it’s been the Freddie Freeman series. The first baseman playing with a high right ankle sprain hit his third homer in as many nights, opening the game in the first inning with a two-run shot following Clarke Schmidt’s four-pitch walk to Ohtani, who didn’t take the bat off his shoulder.

The Dodgers can wrap up the series in Game 4 Tuesday night using an opener and bullpen game for the fourth time in these playoffs. Luis Gil is starting for the Yankees.

Ohtani had the arm in a sling as he ran out on the field for pregame introductions. He said he was told by trainers to wear the device when he’s not in action to keep the shoulder warm. Roberts said Ohtani has been told not to slide again in this series to avoid further damage.

He’s clearly gutting it out at this point, going 0-for-3, though he was on base twice, with the first-inning walk and then getting hit by a pitch. He didn’t slide into second base to end the top of the ninth inning when Mookie Betts hit into a double play.

Roberts said tests confirmed the initial diagnosis of a subluxation of the shoulder. He added that trainers had to pop the shoulder back into its socket when he came off the field after suffering the injury. He also confirmed that once subluxation happens, it tends to recur.

“I think that’s fair,” Roberts said.

That raises the question of whether Ohtani is going to have to undergo surgery to fix the injury after the season, putting him on the sidelines for as much as six months.

“I haven’t had further conversations about the future plan,” Ohtani said through an interpreter after the game. “It’s something that’s going to happen after the season is over. Do additional testing, but in terms of how I feel now, I don’t think so.”

The Yankees and Judge don’t have much time to turn it around. No team in the history of the World Series has come back from a 3-0 deficit, and the Yankees don’t appear to be in any shape to be the first one. They had five hits off six Dodger pitchers, including an Alex Verdugo two-run ninth inning homer, with just two hits against starter Walker Buehler, who lasted five innings and 76 pitches.

It would be the first World Series sweep since the San Francisco Giants took out the Detroit Tigers in 2012, and for the Yankees only the third time in their 41 trips to the World Series they’d go home winless.

The Dodgers of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale did it to them in 1963, and Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine accomplished the feat in 1976.

Yanks manager Aaron Boone said he wasn’t giving up on Judge, who’s batting .140 and has two homers and six RBIs and in three rounds of playoffs, all of them in the five-game win over Cleveland in the American League Championship Series.

“He’ll be ready to go. He’s Aaron Judge,” Boone said. “Just continue to work, get on time and connect on something.”

Judge hit .322 and had 58 homers and 144 RBIs during the regular season. For the Yankees to survive he’s going to have to be a semblance of that player. “It definitely eats at you,” Judge said. “You want to contribute and help the team, but that’s why you have to keep working and keep swinging. I can’t sit here and feel bad for myself. Nobody’s feeling bad for me.”