THE YANKEES avoided elimination on Tuesday with an 11-4 win over the Dodgers (Shutterstock).

By Pete Zarustica/Orange County Tribune

Just like nature abhors a vacuum, so does baseball hate a four-game sweep of the World Series.

So let’s just say that Alexander Vople got a little extra boost in his bat on Tuesday when he hit a grand slam in the bottom of the third at Yankee Stadium, turning a deficit into a lead and paving the way for the New York Yankees to defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers 11-4  in Game Four of the 2024 World Series and avoid elimination.

“I was just trying to get on time for a heater [a fast ball]. “They key was to keep it simple,”

ALEX VOLPE of the Yankees.

But it all started depressingly familiar on Tuesday night when Freddie Freeman hit a two-run home run in the first inning to give the visitors a 2-0 lead. Uh-oh … worried many in the stands. Here we go again.

With the score 2-1 in the third, the Bronx Bombers loaded the bases with Aaron Judge, Jazz Chisholm and Giancarlo Stanton and they all trotted home when Volpe slashed the ball deep into the left field stands, giving the home team a lead they would never lose.

The Dodgers closed to within 5-4 with two runs in the fifth, one of them on a Will Smith homer. Oh-uh, went the worriers. But the Yanks proved to – finally – be late game warriors, scoring one in the sixth (an Austin Wells homer) and five in the eighth, most of that on a three-run home run by Gleyber Torres.

So a huge sigh of relief settled over Manhattan and points north. But when the sun comes up on Wednesday, the Dodgers will still lead the Series three game to one. Nature doesn’t mind a five-game series or even a six-gamer, especially when it would give the Dodgers a chance to finally win a World Series at home.