The regular-season portion of Gerrit Cole’s comeback from Tommy John surgery is complete.
Now it is up to the Yankees to figure out where to slot him into their plans for the AL wild-card series next week.
On a night when neither team had anything to play for in terms of playoff positioning, Cole turned in a solid finale while throwing a season-high 105 pitches in a 9-2 win over the Rays on Wednesday at a brisk Yankee Stadium.
In a start that pitching coach Matt Blake indicated was “important” for deciding where Cole might figure into the Yankees’ pitching plans, the veteran right-hander scattered two runs on three hits and three walks across 5 ²/₃ innings while striking out eight. He finished the season with a 3.61 ERA and largely looked like his old self, even with some bumps in the road earlier this month.
“I feel ready to go [in the playoffs],” Cole said. “The progression from the surgery and phasing back into playing every day has gone about as well as you could hope. It’s allowed us the ability to make some adjustments along the way, continue to fine-tune things and hopefully continue to pitch well here over the next month or so.”
The Yankees pushed Cole beyond where he had been since undergoing elbow surgery last year, with his 105 pitches marking only the second time he has entered triple digits in 22 starts this season. Aaron Boone said Cole wanted to “touch that” territory so he would be in a position to get there again if needed in October.
“Just preparing for what may lie ahead,” said Cole, who still did not generate a ton of swings and misses, recording nine whiffs on 46 swings (four in 25 swings against his four-seam fastball), but got weaker contact than he had in his last few starts.
Ben Rice crushed his 40th and 41st home runs of the season, while the struggling Ryan McMahon hit a grand slam and had five RBIs.
Before Cole’s penultimate start of the season Friday in Arizona and again Wednesday, Boone said he would expect Cole to make a start in the wild-card series, which is likely to come against the Red Sox (still not officially). But which game the former AL Cy Young winner takes remains to be seen.
Boone indicated before Wednesday’s game that the Yankees were “not necessarily” lining up presumptive AL Cy Young winner Cam Schlittler for Game 1, only stating he would pitch one of the first two games. Schlittler, who owns a 1.94 ERA, will pitch his regular-season finale Thursday, meaning he would be starting on his fifth day in Tuesday’s Game 1.
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If the Yankees wanted Cole for Game 1, he would be pitching on his sixth day, and while Blake acknowledged that “in a vacuum,” they would prefer their starter to be going on his sixth day, “I don’t think that would necessarily dictate where they throw necessarily.”
Max Fried, whom Blake mentioned as a candidate for Game 1 or 2, would be pitching on his seventh day for Game 1, as would Carlos Rodón, who has been terrific of late.
“There’s a bunch of different iterations of those four guys across three games that could make sense depending on who you’re playing and what that means coming out of the rest here into potential rest in the next series,” Blake said. “But obviously you got to win the wild card.”
Earlier this month, Cole had back-to-back clunkers against the Padres and Mets in which he gave up a combined seven home runs. He gave up another solo homer Wednesday to Cedric Mullins, but Blake indicated they would take into account the overall body of work and more.
“With Gerrit, it’s not just the [last] month, it’s knowing who he is,” Blake said.
And in his last appearance before the playoffs, Cole looked more like that version again.
“Still maybe a little disappointed we didn’t accomplish our ultimate goal for the division,” Cole said, “but we have a chance to do something special in October, so we’re excited for the first matchup.”
