On Wednesday, as he spoke before his ALDS Game 4 start, it mattered not to Gerrit Cole whether Thursday’s game was win-or-go-home or win-and-advance: he was approaching it as if it were any other start.
“it's pretty simple for me. My goal is to go out there and try to put us in a position to win the game; win or lose (Wednesday), that game is still a game that we're trying to win,” Cole said. “We're trying to win all of them. It doesn't really change the importance at all. It’s been a great series so far, looking forward to getting another crack at it.”
Cole would obviously like to improve on a Game 1 start that, even though the Yankees ended up winning, was a rough one for him. He wasn’t sure if having eight days off between starts fed into his struggles (four runs, three earned, on seven hits with two walks and four strikeouts in five-plus innings), but he saw both the positive and negative in that outing.
“It was a great game, back and forth. We played outstanding defense, which allowed us to minimize some of the damage, and we were efficient enough to get into the sixth inning,” Cole said, “but if you want to keep going, you've got to be sharper. Looking to sharpen up some of the things that kind of hurt us, and looking to continue just to be as efficient as possible and give our team the best chance to win.”
The Royals put the ball in play a lot, they have savvy veterans, and as Cole said, ‘they’re here for a reason,’ but the reason the Yankees gave Cole $324 million was to go out and win games like this, especially in hostile environments.
“The only way that you can have a chance to do what you're trying to do in a game is to be ready to go and be convicted, whether you're delivering a swing, making the defensive play, or making a pitch,” Cole said. “So the best way to give yourself a chance for success is to be in the right frame of mind to execute whatever you're trying to do. … This is a wonderful ballpark with a wonderful fan base, and I expect them to be very loud and ready to go. As a competitor, you respect that type of environment and look forward to playing in those situations.”
And, of course, the skipper is more than happy to have his ace on the mound for this one, and would’ve felt the same way had the results been reversed.
“Yeah, I feel great. He's one of the game's great pitchers, obviously, and I feel like has thrown the ball really well here now for the last couple months,” Aaron Boone said. “Obviously they had a little bit of success against him in his last start. I've seen that over the years where he has that bump in the road, and by and large he usually answers with a really good one. So that would be my expectation.”