Not even 24 hours after the Los Angeles Dodgers had coughed up a World Series game due to failures across the board, the New York Yankees appeared on the threshold of perhaps becoming the first team to ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to even reach a sixth game.

Game 5 starts much as Game 4 had ended: Yankees offense, great pitching, solid defense. Aaron Judge hits a home run and makes the catch Dodgers outfield Kike Hernandez should have made in Game 4. Two more blasts and New York is up 5-0. Los Angeles is reeling.

And then…the Yankees simply fall apart. Something seeped into the minds of the Bronx Bombers…thinking about the plane ride to Los Angeles, or the reversal of fortunes or the cute girl in the fifth row. Who knows? Judge drops an easy liner after Hernandez distracted him in the basepath. Anthony Volpe bounces a throw to third that Jazz Chisholm’s gets a glove on, but his view of the ball is obscured by a hustling Hernandez. With the bases loaded, Mookie Betts hits a cue shot to first. Rizzo gets fooled by the spin and Gerrit Cole fails to cover first.

Freddie Freeman takes an inside pitch and shoots it up the middle to score Will Smith and Tommy Edman. Teoscar Hernandez doubles to score Betts and Freeman. 5-5.

New York responds with a run of its own, but the pitching is so untrustworthy that Aaron Boone keeps Cole in the game for two more innings. Even though all of the signs would indicate that was a terrible decision, Cole delivers. But when he finally comes out, L.A. breaks through. Kike Hernandez and Edman get on again in the top of the 8th. Yankee catcher, Austin Wells sticks his glove too far out in front of him and gives Ohtani a free base to load the bases. It’s the last major mistake of the night for the Yankees. Two sacrifice flies by Gavin Lux and Mookie Betts later and it’s 7-6 Dodgers.

Walker Buehler then comes out of the pen to close the show.

It was tremendous theater: comedy, tragedy, heroism…and a wonderful life lesson. If you focus on the result, you will fail to pay attention to the details. The little things are what give you a chance for success. The Yankees seemed to think they had a win in the bag and it cost them.