Gerrit Cole, Yankees ace, finishes as joker at Fenway Park
Gerrit Cole of the Yankees looks on against the Boston Red Sox during the American League Wild Card game at Fenway Park on October 5, 2021. Credit: Getty Images/Winslow Townson
BOSTON
The chant began in the first inning, perhaps with the Fenway Park crowd sensing weakness in the Yankees’ ace, after a walk to Rafael Devers.
"Gerrrrr-it . . . Gerrrr-it . . . Gerrrr-it . . . "
It’s impossible to tell the precise moment when the mocking chorus began, but the loudest point came as Gerrit Cole went into his delivery on a 2-and-1 pitch to Xander Bogaerts. For whatever reason, that 88-mph changeup sat right in the middle of the strike zone, and Bogaerts demolished it for a 427-foot blast into the centerfield bleachers.
Judging by what followed, you could make the argument that that pitch broke something in Cole right then and there, along with the Yankees, who ultimately went down meekly in a season-ending 6-2 loss to the Red Sox in the American League wild-card game.
Their $324 million ace had failed at his primary objective in a win-or-go-home game. His job was to squeeze the life out of Fenway. Instead, the crowd of 38,324 savored every second of his implosion, and shortly after another homer by Kyle Schwarber, Cole stunningly was pulled with none out and two runners on in the third inning.
The Bogaerts homer felt shocking so early. Schwarber’s 435-foot blast, on a high 97-mph fastball that he hammered into the rightfield grandstand, was more than a lucky punch. That left Cole exposed and suggested his decline over the past month was no illusion to be explained away.
Cole teed up seven home runs in his 18 innings this season at Fenway Park, where his ERA jumped to 7.00 in those four starts. It’s not good to be a Yankee with Red Sox issues, especially when you’re the ace with a record contract, and Cole didn’t do very well postgame providing reasons for his late-season stumbles. Aaron Boone brought up the hamstring issue and his COVID-19 positive, but left unsaid was MLB’s crackdown on sticky substances, something that seemed like a factor throughout the year.
Bottom line, both Boone and Cole insisted he was fine to pitch, but his failing would have been easier to rationalize if that weren’t the case. Because this version of Cole, blowing up in a loser-goes-home scenario like Tuesday’s game, isn’t going to cut it.
"Sick to my stomach" is how Cole described himself afterward. He wasn’t alone in that regard, when you consider all the Yankees fans watching at home. But he didn’t have much in the way of answers.
"At the end of the season, we’re all going through and wearing whatever we’ve had to overcome to get to this point," Cole said. "The other teams deal with the same kind of situations. When it’s all said and done, I didn’t perform the way I wanted to perform today."
Cole lasted only 50 pitches over those two innings-plus, and after a walk to Devers put runners at first and second, Boone didn’t hesitate to jump from the dugout, take a few steps, then signal to the bullpen for Clay Holmes. There would be no discussion at the mound.
"Not easy," Boone said. "It’s a difficult decision, but I felt like the one I needed to make."
For all the criticism Boone absorbs over bullpen moves, nobody faulted him for this one. Incredibly, not even Cole. When the TV camera zoomed in to show him saying "I’m out" as he waited for Boone, there was only resignation on his face. Cole said Kyle Higashioka already was going over the plan for Bogaerts again, which is why he cut him off by repeating "I’m out" when he saw Boone approaching.
"I mean, we needed to get a ground-ball double play right there," Cole said. "And there’s probably nobody more equipped to do that on our team than Clay."
The bigger question? Why didn’t Cole believe he was the one to get the Yankees out of that third-inning jam? He’s supposed to be that guy. And once the Red Sox noticed he was done, there was blood in the water at Fenway.
"We knocked out their ace," Bogaerts said. "That’s the best pitcher they’ve got. That’s the guy they gave all that money to."
Turns out, Red Sox starter Nathan Eovaldi was the pitcher the Yankees thought they had in Cole. He struck out eight through 5 1/3 innings — retiring 11 straight before Anthony Rizzo’s homer — and fiercely protected a 3-1 lead to that point before his departure.
To have Cole collapse was one thing. To watch him get outpitched by former Yankee Eovaldi made it feel even worse. Mix in those haunting chants, the first we’ve heard harassing a Yankees pitcher since the infamous "Raaaah-jah" jeers for Clemens, and it was a nightmare wild-card loss for Cole and the Yankees.
"This is the worst feeling in the world," Cole said. "It happens to 29 teams every year, going home early."
But only one has Cole, and he’s not paying off for the Yankees.
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.
