Gerrit ColeCorey SipkinHe had more than that, really. Cole had the ability to spend part of the day with his better half, Amy, and their 3-month-old kid Caden– at least in between naps– and the Coles were part of a throaty Yankees family contingent inside Progressive.
” I never believed his very first game would be in Cleveland,” he said but, then, what about 2020 has come anywhere close to following a script?
He smiled.
When the lights clicked on at Progressive Field, when the plug went into the wall kick-starting these 2020 playoffs, it was Cole who played the part of stopper. Cole fits them.
” To have Gerrit toss the ball the way he did,” manager Aaron Boone marveled, “that was so huge.”.
” Jeez,” Cole said, “as a household, thats the very first time we got to go to the ballpark as a household and thats something Ill constantly remember.”.
And, by the by, Gerrit Cole tossed seven innings and enabled 2 runs and 6 hits, he set out 13 batters and walked none, and in the entire history of postseason baseball just one pitcher has actually ever done that 13/0 parlay: Tom Seaver, Game 1 of the 1973 NLCS, Mets against the Reds.
The amazing thing is that Gerrit Cole was simply part of the chorus Tuesday night. The Yankees greeted the American League playoffs with a haymaker that not just flattened the Cleveland Indians, 12-3, but definitely must have been heard in other noteworthy precincts such as St. Petersburg, Fla., and Houston. Perhaps even Los Angeles.
” We required to set a tone for the series,” Cole stated. “Im clearly really thankful and humbled to be and take the ball in this position, to be able to deliver felt good, my son being here felt respectable too. It was definitely a special night. Especially in this year, theres a lot more baseball games to win. Well celebrate the good stuff and get after it [Wednesday]”.
Everyone belonged to the enjoyable. 2 batters in the Yankees led 2-0 because Aaron Judge made a baseball vanish into the Cleveland night. Brett Gardner turned the clock back five years approximately. Shane Bieber, the shoo-in Cy Young winner, appeared like a frightened deer wandering onto the Cross Bronx Expressway. Even with no fans inside Progressive Field you could hear a million Ohioans get a head start on their “wait-til-next-year” laments.
The amazing thing is that Gerrit Cole was simply part of the chorus Tuesday night. The Yankees werent going to let him, but even if they hadnt run up the score Cole was everything he was ever supposed to be: a give-me-the-ball monster, a Game 1 brute. Even after the Indians began to get much better swings against him, cut a 3-0 deficit to 3-1 and a 5-1 hole to 5-2, there was never a moment Cole didnt appear in control.
And he was huge, bigger-than-life big, right from the dive, blowing away Francisco Lindor and Cesar Hernandez, then coaxing a weak pop-up from the Indians finest hitter, Jose Ramirez. As that ball soared high over the infield Cole didnt even wait for it to start its descent, stalking off the field immediately. He knows the surface. He knew he was locked in.
Presuming all goes well from here which this offending onslaught wasnt a “Come On Eileen”- design one-hit wonder, there will be other Game ones ahead for Cole, other nights when Cole will be asked to take the ball. And on those nights itll be the Yankees who will be appreciative for that.
Young Caden wont remember the night other than through the videos and pictures his mother maintained in her cell phone, but it suggested whatever to his father.
” I believed he looked really sharp,” Boone stated. “He had all four pitches mixed in and he leaned on all of them.”.
( SPOILER ALERT: Seaver and the Mets lost that video game, 2-1.).
As that ball soared high over the infield Cole didnt even wait for it to start its descent, stalking off the field right away. When the lights clicked on at Progressive Field, when the plug went into the wall kick-starting these 2020 playoffs, it was Cole who played the part of stopper.
Coles performance, really. This, of course, is why the Yankees backed up the Brinks and blessed him their ace.
Cole wasnt going to lose this. The Yankees werent going to let him, but even if they hadnt run up the score Cole was everything he was ever supposed to be: a give-me-the-ball beast, a Game 1 brute. Even after the Indians began to get better swings versus him, cut a 3-0 deficit to 3-1 and a 5-1 hole to 5-2, there was never a moment Cole didnt appear in control.
