Gerrit Cole will be greeted into the 2022 season by the same group that showed him and the Yankees the door in 2021.
The hated Red Sox, who teed off on the Yankee ace early in last year’s Wild Card Game to end the Bombers’ season, are in town for Opening Day on Friday, and Cole is expecting a battle as always.
“It’s a pretty formidable opponent,” Cole said. “I just kind of see it as two stags locking up in the forest. Someone’s going to break an antler, and no one’s going to back down.”
Cole allowed a pair of home runs in two innings of work in that do-or-die game to a Boston lineup that has since added Trevor Story into the fold, making the AL East even more of a gauntlet in 2022. To survive, Cole will have to be the ace the Yankees need him to be, not like he was last October. But his late-season troubles were likely a result of his bum hamstring, though that doesn’t give him any relief from his Wild Card dud.
“As a competitor, when you lose, it kind of eats at you,” Cole said. “There's a part of me that always carries along the scars that we get when we fall short. But at the same time, if it doesn't kill you it will make you stronger.”
With Boston and New York both expected to be competitive in the division this season, Friday could be an exciting first chapter in a new edition of the rivalry, though Cole thinks it will be hard to add to a rivalry that is already considered the best in professional sports.
“It’s hard to really add anything to the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry,” Cole said. “It is what it is.”
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