Just how it’s been with this team.

Oct 28, 2024; New York, New York, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Will Smith (16) tags out New York Yankees designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton (27) at home plate during the fourth inning in game three of the 2024 MLB World Series at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images / Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images

A team that was barely above .500 from June through the end of the regular season, more times than not, wouldn’t make the playoffs. But the New York Yankees rode a hot April and May before coasting the rest of the way, earning a favorable postseason path against the KC Royals and Cleveland Guardians en route to their first World Series appearance since 2009.

Much of the Yankees’ “success” since the beginning of June was a result of their opponents absolutely stinking. The Orioles choked harder. The Mariners fell apart. The Astros collapsed in the first round. The World Series champion Texas Rangers missed the playoffs. The American League was wide open and New York had the best roster. By default, not of their own doing, they were the “favorite.”

But here they are in Game 3 of the World Series, getting beaten up and down the field, staring down the barrel of an 0-3 deficit and one of the most disappointing World Series performances in recent memory.

After a dreadful start to Game 3, the Yankees really needed to get something going. So when Giancarlo Stanton got the team’s first hit in the bottom of the fourth, they needed to capitalize.

With two outs and Stanton on second, Anthony Volpe ripped a single to left field, where Teoscar Hernandez was defending for the Dodgers. He famously doesn’t have a good arm, so it wasn’t completely insane for third base coach Luis Rojas to send Stanton home despite the veteran’s struggles with running. The end result? An absolutely perfect throw from Hernandez got Stanton on a bang-bang play.

Yankees down bad in Game 3 of the World Series after Giancarlo Stanton thrown out

Of course, this was the situation the Yankees were in. They desperately needed a run and that was their one window since the start of the game. Not sending Stanton would’ve put them in a position to rely on the bottom of the order to get another hit, which felt impossible (though, we must say, Anthony Rizzo being up next was probably their third-best hope).

But Stanton’s legs becoming the Yankees’ lone hope of plating a run after falling down 3-0 early couldn’t have been more emblematic of their 2024 season. The Yankees have backed themselves into corners all year, and so many of their problems were manufactured by their own shortcomings they failed to address, which were masked by their 94-win season.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place while the offense was getting shut down by Walker Buehler through the first 3 1/3 innings, Rojas, who is already a questionable third-base coach with imperfect instincts, felt implored to send Stanton because of how the Yankees have failed time and time again to come through with runners on … pretty much all postseason long.

We’d fault Rojas for giving Stanton the green light. We’d fault the rest of the team for putting both parties in that situation. We’d fault everybody for where this team is right now. And that’s why it’s been so hard to root for the 2024 New York Yankees.