Gerrit Cole has been a rock for the Yankees this season—except at Fenway Park (1-3, 7.00 ERA in four starts), a frustrating trend that continued when the Bombers needed him most Tuesday night. Cole may have turned things around had he had a longer leash (Clay Holmes was summoned from the pen in the third inning), but with New York’s season on the line in a winner-take-all Wild Card game, manager Aaron Boone didn’t have that luxury.
Between Aaron Judge’s costly base-running gaffe (as deflating a sequence as you’ll see in a playoff game), Giancarlo Stanton misjudging what turned out to be a wall-ball single and embattled cleanup hitter Joey Gallo continuing to shrink in big spots—not to mention the overwhelming 7-0 walk disparity in Boston’s favor—Tuesday was a night of missed opportunities for the Yankees. And while there’s plenty of blame to go around, the onus falls on Cole, who is paid like an ace but didn’t pitch like one Tuesday, imploding while his Red Sox counterpart Nathan Eovaldi answered the bell with eight strikeouts in a dominant performance.
“This is the worst feeling in the world,” said Cole, who served up towering home runs to both Xander Bogaerts and Kyle Schwarber before getting the hook. “All the good that maybe put us in this opportunity or the good that you did in the regular season, there’s really nothing you can do to make it feel any better.”
Cole gave Boone an earful earlier this year when he tried to remove him from a game against Houston (his former team), but the All-Star right-hander couldn’t argue with his skipper this time. “We needed to get a ground-ball double play right there and there’s probably nobody more equipped to do that on our team than Clay or [Jonathan] Loasiga at that point,” said Cole, taking full accountability for what would be his shortest start of the season. “We’ve got to win and that’s the right move.”
Asked how it felt losing to the hated Red Sox in a game that will haunt the Yankees for months to come, the 6’4” hurler kept his response short and sweet. “Sick to my stomach.”
With Boone’s contract up and Judge a year closer to free agency, it’s back to the drawing board for the Yankees, who have only themselves to blame for Tuesday night’s debacle in Beantown.
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