Cole, Clay and Yanks live to see another day
New York Yankees relief pitcher Clay Holmes (35) reacts in the 8th inning in Game 4 of the ALDS at Progressive Field on Oct. 16, 2022 Credit: Newsday/Thomas A. Ferrara
CLEVELAND
By anyone’s definition, saving a season qualifies as an emergency. And with the sirens going off Sunday night at Progressive Field, the Yankees not only chose to finally break the glass on the fragile Clay Holmes but were rescued by a $324 million pinstriped paramedic in Gerrit Cole.
We’ll get back to Holmes, who was pulled from the eye of a media hurricane to deliver a scoreless eighth inning in the Yankees’ 4-2 victory over the Guardians that evened up the Division Series at two games apiece. But with the season on the brink, Cole was the perfect remedy for the Yankees’ greatest weakness of these playoffs — through seven innings Sunday, he removed any need for the team’s sketchy decision-making process to have an impact on the outcome.
Maybe that’s being a little harsh on manager Aaron Boone, but let’s be real: This series hasn’t represented one of his finer weeks at the helm. From the head-scratching deployment of Jameson Taillon for his first-ever MLB relief appearance in the 10th inning of the Game 2 loss to the lack of late defensive subs for newbie outfielder Oswaldo Cabrera to the puzzling bullpen management that destroyed Game 3.
Just to name a few. But Cole took all the pressure off Boone in Sunday’s elimination game, allowing two runs and striking out eight in a 110-pitch performance that helped send the Division Series back to the Bronx on Monday night.
Anthony Rizzo immediately put Cole in front with an RBI single in the first inning, and once Harrison Bader made it 3-0 in the second with a two-run homer, the Yankees must have felt as if they were shaking off the doomsday vibe from Saturday’s collapse.
It was the 19th time this season that Cole had thrown at least one pitch with a lead of at least three runs, and the Yankees were 16-2 in the previous 18.
But this wasn’t all smooth sailing for Cole, who surrendered his obligatory home run to Josh Naylor leading off the fourth. This was the eighth straight postseason start in which Cole allowed a homer, tying Yu Darvish for MLB’s longest streak.
No surprise there, given Cole’s penchant for the long ball this season. The key on this night, however? He clamped down from that point, protecting a 4-2 lead before handing the ball off to Holmes for the eighth inning.
"We just executed a lot of good pitches and mixed well, well enough to get away with a couple of mistakes,” said Cole, who has 127 strikeouts through his first 16 postseason appearances, passing Randy Johnson for the most in MLB history in that span. “And, you know, I mean, I had the lead and was just focused on executing pitches and not giving it up.”
As for Holmes, Boone refused to deploy the All-Star closer Saturday night in the ninth inning with a 5-3 lead — and yet was the first phone call the manager made 24 hours later with the season at stake.
Go figure. But it’s been hard to find the logic in many of Boone’s moves during the Division Series, so why should this one have been any different?
Holmes was more than happy to turn the page after Saturday’s in-house communication breakdown.
“It’s just one of those things; as a competitor, I want to be out there as much as possible,” he said Sunday night. “Even looking to tomorrow already, I want to be in there. But there was some context around things last night, honestly there was a plan, and they were making sure they just took everything in and they were making the right decision for me and the team. Sometimes it makes more sense to be set up for success later on versus a chance at something that who knows what the outcome is going to be.”
Hal Steinbrenner spent $260 million for baseball’s third-highest payroll this year to try to remove as many unseen variables as possible, but no amount of money was able to prevent a handful of questionable decisions, a couple of desperate lineup changes and his Yankees ending up on elimination’s doorstep for Game 4.
The day after Boone was blasted — again — for his puzzling bullpen moves in the shocking Game 3 loss, Sunday’s lineup card appeared with Oswaldo Cabrera starting at shortstop and the otherwise invisible Aaron Hicks popping up in leftfield.
It took until Game No. 166 for the Yankees to finally admit that Isiah Kiner-Falefa, acquired to be stopgap shortstop for this season, is essentially a defensive liability at the position. Over the course of six months, Boone exercised (somewhat) plausible deniability, and with the Yankees racking up 99 wins en route to the AL East title, they could afford to carry his suspect glove coupled with a confidence dented by the intense Bronx spotlight.
Enter Cabrera, a Boone favorite and an infielder by trade, and it’s very likely that Kiner-Falefa has played his last game at shortstop as a member of the Yankees. If the Yankees advance, they presumably will add Oswald Peraza to the roster — something they obviously whiffed on for this round, in retrospect, based on benching Kiner-Falefa.
The shortstop controversy was hardly the only topic of conversation before Game 4. Boone continued to be thoroughly interrogated about Claygate before Game 4, and for as much as the manager talked about it, the explanations didn’t get any easier.
In their playoff history, the Yankees had been 167-0 when entering the ninth with a multiple-run cushion, so Saturday’s collapse was truly an unprecedented meltdown.
But with Cole’s heroic turn, and everything seemingly forgiven with Holmes, the Yankees rebounded to stay alive for Monday’s Game 5.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
