The Yankees need Gerrit Cole to be Gerrit Cole to win the World Series

The Yankees need Gerrit Cole to be Gerrit Cole to win the World Series

The Cole that took the mound in the first three innings of Saturday’s game against the Boston Red Sox was the ace the New York Yankees need in their hunt for a championship. He blew away Boston’s lineup in his first turn through the order. His fastball was electric and had excellent vertical movement. He didn’t allow a hit and faced the minimum through three innings. This was the stuff of a no-hitter.

Even looking back at his past several starts since the All-Star break, that’s the Cole who can propel the Yankees through October, the Cole who provides a sense of relief and firepower with everything at stake. Entering Saturday, the veteran right-hander carried a 1.58 ERA across seven starts since Aug. 4. In that month-plus, Cole came close to resembling the Cy Young award-winning pitcher he was last year, when the Yankees missed the playoffs and their opportunity to trot out one of the game’s top pitchers — at his best — in October baseball.

Now, the Yankees are boasting one of their most complete teams in recent history. The roster’s strengths are beginning to fall into place. Yet, there are signs that Cole is not yet where he needs to be.

Look no further than the four fingers Cole stunningly lifted on the mound Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.

To make it painfully obvious what he was doing, Cole proceeded to wave his index finger toward first base and intentionally walked Red Sox slugger Rafael Devers with no one on base. Multiple Yankees players said they had never seen a pitcher raise four fingers and call for an intentional walk. It’s almost always managers who call for the free pass from within the dugout. More than that, it was unlike Cole, whose reputation as a cutthroat competitive ace mismatched the fearful act of evading one of the game’s best sluggers. Sure, Devers has eight career home runs against the Yankees ace, but why wouldn’t Cole want to try and balance the record by going after him?

Just as shocking, Cole physically and mentally unraveled after the Devers decision, as he coughed up seven earned runs and recorded just four more outs before being pulled in the fifth inning after just 68 pitches.

Here’s the good news for Cole: The Yankees won’t have to deal with Devers and the Red Sox for the rest of the season. Boston is all but out of postseason contention after the Yankees took three of four from them in the Bronx to close out their most recent homestand. But here’s the bad news for this suddenly timid version of the Yankees ace: More of baseball’s elite sluggers await in the playoffs.

Thought facing Devers was hard? Try going up against Yordan Alvarez, who has two homers in 10 career at-bats against Cole (and boasts an overall postseason OPS of .949). José Ramírez sports a 1.283 OPS in 23 at-bats versus Cole, while Carlos Correa has a 1.329 OPS in 15 at-bats. Gunnar Henderson already has a 1.178 OPS in nine at-bats against New York’s ace. Cole could be dealing with any of them in the coming weeks. And should the Yankees reach the Fall Classic, numerous sluggers from the Dodgers or Phillies potentially await.  Cole could’ve used the multiple at-bats against Devers as a practice run for the competition he’ll face in the playoffs. Instead, he showed the league he wasn’t up for it.

Which leads to another critical element of Cole’s game that he’s attempting to iron out in these final two weeks before the playoffs arrive: pitching deeper into games.

“I’m still trying to get into the seventh,” Cole told FOX Sports. “We don’t want to be doing something in the postseason that we haven’t practiced.”

Cole expressed multiple times that one of his main benchmarks now is to begin ramping up his pitch count. The Yankees ace has yet to pitch in the seventh inning across his 15 outings since coming off the injured list in June. That’s quite abnormal for a workhorse like Cole who prides himself on going the distance, with two complete-game shutouts and 11 starts with at least seven innings pitched in last year’s Cy Young season to prove it.

The veteran said he aims to practice pitching deep in his upcoming outings so that he’s ready to throw 110-115 pitches per start in the playoffs. Eating up innings will be important come October, particularly for a Yankees bullpen ranked 16th in MLB in the second half of the season. This Yankees pitching staff tends to be unpredictable, highlighted by Clay Holmes’ demotion from closing duties, starter Marcus Stroman’s demotion to the bullpen — he has a 5.40 ERA since the All-Star break — right-hander Carlos Rodon surrendering the second-most home runs (29) across all MLB starters, and rookie right-hander Luis Gil testing his limit in innings pitched.

Out of all of those unknowns, Cole is supposed to be the sure thing; the dependable arm who will carry the Yankees to glory.

The Yankees made Cole their $324 million ace to help deliver a title in October. As if that wasn’t pressure enough, there’s so much more at stake. Whether they win could also inform their decision to go all-in on their offer for Juan Soto, who will enter free agency after the 2024 season is done and dusted. This could be the one chance that the trio of Aaron Judge, Soto and Cole make a run for the World Series together. This is the historic year that Judge, in his prime, has crushed 53 home runs alongside Soto’s 39 to make the Yankees the best offense in baseball. This could be Judge and Cole’s best opportunity to win a title.

“It’s always great to have a Cy Young ace,” Soto told FOX Sports. “I don’t want to say it’s easier, but it will make it very hard for the other team to beat us with Cole.”

Now is not the time for Cole to falter or tremble in the face of competition. Now is the time for Gerrit Cole to be Gerrit Cole, the ruthless competitor who is one-of-one. There is nobody else capable of pitching like Cole when he is at his best. He needs to put his meltdown against the Red Sox behind him, turn the page, dive into his next outing, and tap back into the innate qualities that make him one of the top competitors in the sport.

Nobody will remember Cole’s four fingers to Devers if the Yankees hoist a trophy on the World Series stage in six weeks. But everyone will if they don’t.