When the Yankees take the field against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night, they’ll be fighting for their postseason lives and looking to avoid being swept in four games in their first World Series appearance since 2009.
If the Yankees can find a way to win Game 4, it would be ace Gerrit Cole on the bump for Game 5. And if the Yankees can win that game, it could apply a lot of pressure on the Dodgers with the series moving back to Los Angeles.
But in speaking with the media on Tuesday, Cole knows that while it sounds cliché, the Yankees must take things one game at a time to erase their current three-game deficit.
“There’s probably a bit of a mental battle,” said Cole. “…Okay, sure, we have to win four. Well guess what, we had to win four going into Game 1. So, in that respect, things haven’t changed that much. It’s one game at a time, one pitch at a time.”
Cole was terrific in Game 1, limiting the powerful Dodgers’ lineup to just one earned run on four hits over his 6.0 innings of work. And win-or-go-home games, like the potential Game 5 on Wednesday, are exactly why the Yankees signed him to a massive nine-year, $324 million deal back in 2019.
“Obviously, we’re in a tough position, but there’s a lot of baseball left to be played and anything can happen,” Cole, the 2023 AL Cy Young winner, said. “We’re excited to get back out there. Hey, we’re still in the World Series. Hey, we’re in the Bronx. We’ve still got a shot at this thing. We’re just looking to try to play a little bit better and attack the opposition from the first pitch.”
If Luis Gil and the Yankees can stay alive on Tuesday, Cole would take the bump at 8:08 p.m. on Wednesday night.
