Cubs legend Anthony Rizzo calls Yankees Game 3 a must-win – and he would know

If anyone on the New York Yankees roster knows the urgency the team needs as the World Series shifts to New York for Game 3, it’s first baseman (and former Chicago Cubs legend) Anthony Rizzo. 

Rizzo's experience on this stage is the kind of secret weapon the Yankees could use, heading back to the Bronx down 2-0 to the Los Angeles Dodgers. After all, Rizzo knows what it takes to stage a historic rally with a title on the line: Rizzo helped the Cubbies ended a 107-year title drought back in 2016, when Chicago came back from 3-1 against the Cleveland Indians. And as you'd expect from such a veteran presence, he was preaching patience ahead of the biggest game of the year to date.

“It’s not over until it’s over,” Rizzo said, according to an MLB.com story. “This is a seven-game series. We’ve gone on a four-game winning streak plenty of times. We’ve gone 4-1 plenty of times. When it comes down to it, it’s just winning one ballgame.”

It sounds simple when you say it like that, but based on Games 1 and 2, New York has its work cut out for it.

What it will take for the Yankees to turn the World Series around

The most glaring issue for the Yankees right now is simple: Aaron Judge hasn’t been quite the slugger he usually is. The soon-to-be AL MVP currently has one hit in nine at-bats in this series. He’s also been struck out six times across the first two games. If he doesn’t “start swinging at strikes” as he put it, the Yankees will be in a heap of trouble trying to get out of a 3-0 hole. 

It also means, maybe Rizzo has some magic left to uplift the Yankees. Like he said in the MLB story, this game doesn’t necessarily mean the series is over. But it’s a heck of a lot easier to come back from down two games than three. 

The Yankees are also going to need a lot more timely hits. They’re currently batting .197 as a team in the two games. That’s not going to cut it. While there have been some bright spots with Juan Soto, Gleyber Torres and Giancarlo Stanton, this lineup hasn’t quite put it together consistently, with too many bad at-bats in key spots and too many automatic outs at the bottom of the order.

Again, not all is lost. And truthfully this feels like a perfect reset for the Yankees. That said, if they don’t get a win here, well, they’d be closer to getting swept than winning the whole thing.