Gerrit Cole turns in solid regular-season finale as Yankees face wild-card round question

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. 

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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 night at a brisk Yankee Stadium. 

In a start that pitching coach Matt Blake indicated was “important” for deciding where Cole might figure into the pitching plans, the veteran right-hander scattered two runs on three hits and three walks across 5 ²/₃ innings while striking out eight.

Finishing the season with a 3.61 ERA, he 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 past few starts. 

Interestingly, 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. 

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, Aaron Boone said he would expect the former AL Cy Young winner to make a start in the wild-card series. But which game he takes remains to be seen. 

Boone said 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. 

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.” 

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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.