Here's 'the one' decision Boone rethinks from Game 1

LOS ANGELES -- With time to reflect on his late-inning moves Friday in Game 1 of the World Series, Yankees manager Aaron Boone said that he would “double down” on those maneuvers, with one possible exception.

Boone said he was fine with his call to lift Gerrit Cole after 88 pitches, saying the ace seemed “done,” and later handing the ball to Nestor Cortes against tough left-handed hitters in the 10th inning. Boone said he second-guessed not having Luke Weaver begin the 10th, when Jake Cousins pitched instead.

“That's the one that certainly I can make a case for in my head,” Boone said on Saturday. “I worry a little bit about that third up with him, and where does that leave us if that doesn't go according to plan, and I haven't done the third up necessarily with him. So that's the one. But the other ones, I would double down on.”

Weaver entered to get the final two outs of the eighth inning, then pitched a scoreless ninth to send the game to extra innings.

“I didn’t tell him he was done right away,” Boone said. “So I think you can make the case for when we scored the run [in the 10th], to take a shot and send him back out there. But it’s a third up, even though he was pitch-efficient, asking him to get eight outs is a little bit of a different animal than he’s done through this postseason.”

Aiming to protect a one-run lead, Cousins issued a one-out walk to Gavin Lux and allowed Tommy Edman’s infield single in the 10th before yielding to Cortes, who retired Shohei Ohtani on a foul out that advanced runners to second and third.

Mookie Betts was intentionally walked, and Cortes surrendered Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam -- the first in World Series history.

The call to lift Cole in the seventh inning drew criticism, including from Derek Jeter on the FOX postgame show. Boone said that he intended for Cole to face Teoscar Hernández and Max Muncy in that inning, but Hernández’s eight-pitch at-bat prompted the call for Clay Holmes.

“We had talked about trying to get through Muncy,” Boone said. “And after the long at-bat there, the sequence of at-bats – the five, six leading up to that, I knew I kind of had to get him there.”

Cortes had not pitched since Sept. 18 due to a left elbow flexor strain, but Boone believed it was the correct choice to bring him in over left-hander Tim Hill, who had been warming side-by-side in the bullpen.

“I’m the ringleader in the Timmy Hill fan club,” Boone said. “But the ball is going to be in play and he does give up hits, and [if he does], I know Mookie is in play now. Nestor is really good. I have no problem with Nestor. Even after the fact, I feel like that was the right move with one out.”

Boone said that the 37-day layoff did not dissuade him from using Cortes, noting that he was nearly added to the ALCS roster against the Guardians when right-hander Ian Hamilton was injured.

“Mark Leiter Jr. sat over there for a couple of weeks and we threw him right in there [during the ALCS],” Boone said. “So did [the Dodgers’ Alex] Vesia and [Brusdar] Graterol. This is a really good pitcher that went through the process to get ready to go, and that’s his spot.”