ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Yankees are putting their faith in Gerrit Cole to get them off to a good start in the ALDS.
Cole will start Game 1 against the Rays on Saturday, the team announced Friday, handing the ball to the veteran right-hander instead of lefty Carlos Rodón, who was throwing the ball as well as anyone down the stretch of the regular season.
The Yankees had the luxury of picking between the two after sweeping the Red Sox in the AL wild-card series with Cam Schlittler and Max Fried.
Cole had been lined up to start Game 3 of that series, but it never got there, so the Yankees are staying on track and giving him the ball first against the Rays.
That could mean Rodón spending the ALDS as a bullpen option again — despite throwing eight shutout innings against the Rays in the final week of the season — with Schlittler expected back for Game 2 (and 5 if necessary), Fried on extended rest to pitch Game 3 and Cole on regular rest to throw Game 4.
In his first season back from Tommy John surgery, the 36-year-old Cole pitched to a 3.61 ERA across 22 starts. He largely looked like his former Cy Young self, except for a rough two-start stretch in early September in which he gave up a combined seven home runs.
He is also getting less swing-and-miss than he has been accustomed to for the rest of his career (a 21.3 percent whiff rate), though the Rays whiffed less than any other team in the regular season (20.7 percent).
Part of this is also the Yankees trusting Cole’s big-game pedigree, with a career 2.77 ERA in the playoffs.
But Rodón made a strong case after pitching to a 1.42 ERA in his final four starts in September.
And there was a case to be made for throwing an extra lefty starter against the Rays, who ranked 25th with a .678 OPS against southpaws compared to fifth with a .751 OPS against righties.
