MLB Sells Ball Aaron Judge Dropped in Game 5 of 2024 World Series for $43K at Auction

A ball from one of the pivotal moments of the 2024 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees sold at an auction held by Major League Baseball.

MLB announced the winning bid for Aaron Judge's dropped ball in the fifth inning of Game 5 at Yankee Stadium sold for $43,510 on Thursday.

After losing the first three games of the series, the Yankees were able to stave off elimination with an 11-4 victory in Game 4. A win in Game 5 would have sent the series back to Los Angeles and put the pressure back on the Dodgers.

It looked like things were going in favor of the Yankees to start Game 5. They took a 5-0 lead after three innings, with Judge hitting a two-run homer in the bottom of the first. Gerrit Cole was cruising with four no-hit innings to start the game.

Then came the fifth inning. Enrique Hernández led off the frame with a single for the Dodgers' first hit. Tommy Edman followed with a soft liner to center for what should have been a routine play, but the ball hit off Judge's glove to put two runners on with no outs.

Cole looked like he would get out of the situation unscathed after striking out Gavin Lux and Shohei Ohtani, but he failed to cover first on a grounder to Anthony Rizzo that scored one run.

The Dodgers followed with a two-run single by Freddie Freeman and a two-run double by Teoscar Hernández that tied the score. The Yankees did go back on top in the sixth with a sacrifice fly from Giancarlo Stanton, but the good vibes were short-lived.

Los Angeles responded in the eighth by scoring two runs to take a 7-6 lead. Walker Buehler closed out the game with a perfect ninth to seal the win and give the Dodgers their second World Series title in the past five seasons.

Judge's blunder was one of many defensive miscues for the Yankees throughout the playoffs, but his play was going to get more of the headlines by virtue of being the biggest star on the team.

It didn't help matters that Judge struggled with the bat throughout the postseason, despite his first-inning homer in Game 5. He hit just .184/.344/.408 with three homers in 14 games.

The Yankees captain was named AL MVP for the second time in three years after a terrific regular season, but there is a bubbling narrative about his playoff struggles that had another chapter added to it after his fifth-inning error in Game 5.