Dodgers vs. Yankees World Series live updates, score, highlights

NEW YORK — Desperation was so high in the Bronx this week, with the New York Yankees facing elimination in the World Series to the Dodgers, even their fans crossed the line.

Before the start of Game 5 on Wednesday night, with the Dodgers just one win from a championship holding a three-games-to-one lead in the Fall Classic, much of the pregame conversation revolved around the two Yankees fans who interfered — to put it mildly — with Mookie Betts’ first-inning catch in foul territory in right field.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” fellow Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernández of the play, in which one fan held Betts’ left wrist and pried the ball out of his glove, while another grasped Betts’ right arm. “Now that I see pictures and videos and all that stuff, it’s a little crazy.”

Despite that, all involved parties seemed to be OK with how the incident was handled: The two fans were barred from attending Game 5. The main instigator acknowledged to The Times that he “probably crossed the line.” And Yankees manager Aaron Boone said sternly “there’s no place for that.”

“Yankee fans, they’re really passionate with this team,” Hernández said. “They go hard on players. But I don’t think there’s nothing to worry about.”

“It was maybe one of the more extreme [examples] of trying to rip a ball out,” Yankees outfielder, and former Dodger, Alex Verdugo added. “But at the same time, that’s kind of New York. I feel like that’s what you expect out here. You expect some unique things.”

The Yankees also needed to be unique in order to have hopes of a comeback in this series. No team has ever erased a 3-0 deficit in the World Series before. No team has even forced a sixth game from such a hole.

But the Yankees did have their ace, Gerrit Cole, on the mound for Game 5 coming off his six-inning, one-run start back in Game 1. And while the Dodgers felt good about having their own No. 1 starter, Jack Flaherty, pitching, the pregame onus was on them to make adjustments at the plate.

“He’s one of the best because the stuff that he has and the way that he approaches every hitter, he’s not an easy guy to go face,” said Hernández, who is only five for 26 in his regular-season career against Cole but managed to single in the seventh inning against him in Game 1. “He’s not going to give a lot of pitches to hit to anybody. You just try to make the adjustment during the games and preparation before the game and just go execute it.”

One thing the Dodgers did not do well against Cole in Game 1 was attack his fastball.

The six-time All-Star threw his four-seam — a pitch the Dodgers have had success against in most other games this postseason — on 45 of his 88 pitches, and watched the Dodgers harmlessly foul it off on half of their 23 swings. Of the nine times the Dodgers put one of Cole’s fastballs in play, only three resulted in hits: Hernández’s single, a Tommy Edman double and a Kiké Hernández triple. The Dodgers were only able to score off one of those knocks, when Will Smith hit a sacrifice fly that brought home Kiké Hernández.

Improving against that pitch, manager Dave Roberts said, was going to be key in Game 5.

“We’re in a good space to finish things off tonight,” he said pregame. “I see us breaking out.”

The Dodgers could only hope so.

From the dugout to the bleachers, desperation in the Bronx had only heightened entering Wednesday night.