Everything was going well for him New York Yankees. They kept their season alive on Tuesday by beating the Los Angeles Dodgers in resounding fashion to reduce their series deficit to 3-1. The odds were still against them, obviously, but the Yankees had a path to, at the very least, return to Los Angeles – or else make history completing what would have been a comeback unlike any we’ve ever seen before.

Momentum only continued to point in their direction in the first inning when Aaron Judge’s bat came alive with his first home run in the World Series. Jazz Chisholm Jr. followed with a long home run. Giancarlo Stanton joined the party in the bottom of the third inning with a home run. It was 5-0 in New York with their ace, Gerrit Cole, distributing.

Unfortunately, everything fell apart in the fifth round. It all started when Kiké Hernandez recorded the Dodgers’ first hit of the night. A comedy of errors ensues. New York’s fifth-inning loss opened the door for the Dodgers to pull off one of the most bizarre and shocking comebacks in recent memory. They capped it off with a World Series victory.

New York committed three defensive errors in the fifth inning, but all three were not created evenly. Here’s a ranking from terrible to inexcusable.

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The Dodgers had their first two runners in the fifth inning and a great double play candidate, Will Smith, coming up. A ground ball would have been huge from Cole as he tried to keep the score at 5-0 New York. He got that ground ball, but the result was far from what was expected.

Smith hit a soft ground ball to Anthony Volpe’s right. He fielded it cleanly and tried to get the force out at third base. A bad throw allowed Kiké Hernandez to get there safely, loading the bases with no one out – opening the door for a Dodgers rally.

I actually think Volpe made a good decision here. His momentum was taking him toward third base, and he would have caught Hernandez with a good throw. Unfortunately, the throw bounced and Jazz Chisholm Jr. failed to make a difficult jumper.

It’s a play Volpe absolutely should have made, especially considering he’s generally a good defender, but it also wasn’t exactly the easiest play to execute. It’s bad, but not close to the worst of New York’s fifth-inning mistakes.

Back-to-back Yankees errors allowed the Dodgers to load the bases with no one out, giving them a chance to cut deep into their 5-0 deficit. Despite the mistakes made behind him, Cole remained unfazed. He struck out Gavin Lux and Shohei Ohtani with the bases loaded to keep the score 5-0 and give himself a chance to get out of the inning. He was one takedown away from the biggest escape job of the season.

When Mookie Betts hit a ground ball to first base, it was as if Cole was out of the inning. A routine was about to be performed – until it wasn’t. The Yankees had two ways to get out to first base and failed to execute either of them, allowing a Dodgers run to score and extend the inning. We all know what happened next.

This would have been a tough play, but if Anthony Rizzo hadn’t looked up and wondered what Gerrit Cole was doing, he probably could have gotten Betts at first base. The big mistake, however, was Cole’s refusal to cover the first base of the game. He had started to move towards first, but stopped once Rizzo was about to field the ball on the ground . The best guess is why Cole stopped.

Covering first base as a pitcher when a ground ball is hit to the first baseman is as routine as it gets. Cole even covered first base on a ground ball hit by Rizzo with Betts at bat in the first inning of this game! His refusal to go there may not have been a mistake in the box score, but it was a mental mistake that played a huge role in costing New York.

Game 5 looked like Aaron Judge’s night. He had struggled throughout the playoffs, and Finally showed signs of life. The two-run homer he hit in the first inning looked like the player we saw in the regular season. He even made an incredible catch in the fourth inning to rob Freddie Freeman of another extra base hit and end a potential Dodgers rally before it could even begin. Unfortunately, everything he did before the fifth inning went out the window when Judge dropped as routine a ball as possible.

I mean, how does it happen? Tommy Edman hit a lazy ball to center field, and Judge just…dropped it. Judge was there, the ball was going to land right in his glove, but he just couldn’t secure it. It is a play that the judge can perform in his sleep. This is a play that any MLB player can easily make. The judge just gave up.

The Dodgers started the inning with their first hit of the game, giving themselves some form of hope, but Cole then rebounded by recording what would surely be a routine. Judge’s error gave the Dodgers even more reason to believe and opened the floodgates for what turned out to be a season-defining inning.

To make matters worse, it wasn’t a hubbub in the center of the field. It was the judge’s first mistake season. He saved it for the most routine plays on the biggest stages. Just a shocking mistake that completely changed the season.