Phew! Cole survives late scare in sturdy clincher showing

KANSAS CITY – In an effort befitting a $324 million ace in a clinching game, Gerrit Cole quieted the Royals’ bats for most of a brilliant seven-inning performance in leading the Yankees to a 3-1 victory in Thursday night’s Game 4 of the American League Division Series.

But for just an instant, it looked like Cole’s 87th – and what wound up his final – pitch of the night was going to send Kauffman Stadium into a state of delirium.

Kyle Isbel crushed the ball a Statcast-projected 370 feet to deep right. It looked like it had enough to leave the yard for what would have been a game-tying two-run homer.

Instead, right fielder Juan Soto drifted back and caught it inches in front of the Royals’ bullpen fence. Per Statcast, the drive by Isbel would have been gone in 24 of MLB’s 30 parks -- including Yankee Stadium.

But not on this night at Kauffman Stadium, and not against Cole, who is likely to make his next start in Game 2 of the AL Championship Series on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium against either the Guardians or Tigers.

“My heart skipped a beat on Isbel,” admitted Yankees manager Aaron Boone.

If Cole fretted that fly ball as it soared toward right, he wasn’t about to divulge it in the postgame euphoria.

“I executed my pitch. So as a pitcher, that's all you can do,” said Cole.

Once the ball landed safely in Soto’s glove, Cole let out a giant roar as he headed back to the dugout.

“He was electric tonight,” said Yankees third baseman/quote machine Jazz Chisholm Jr. “I don't know if you guys saw the roar in his last inning, but that fired everybody up. Gerrit, he is the ace that I've never seen in my life, the confidence, the way he goes out there and carries this team and tells everybody to stay in it.”

Cole scattered six hits and a run across his seven frames, walking none and striking out four. In 19 career postseason starts, Cole improved to 11-6 while lowering his ERA to 2.94.

“I thought Gerrit was great,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone. “Really efficient again. I thought right from the jump, his fastball was really good, and he had the command of it, and then he was able to mix other things off of that.”

After a flat performance in his team’s 6-5 win in Game 1, Cole was thrilled to bounce back with a vintage effort.

“It means a lot,” said Cole. “It was a big game. It was a fun game. It was a great battle. Just a great battle. Fun to be part of.”

It wasn’t much fun for the Royals, who needed Cole to have a misstep to push this series back to New York. That didn’t happen.

“I think his fastball was a little bit better today,” said Royals manager Matt Quatraro. “He located it at the top of the zone, which he's got 18, 20 inches of carry at 96, 97 miles an hour. That's a tough thing to get to, and I think to me that was the biggest difference.”

For Boone, the only question was how long to stick with Cole. The manager thought about removing his ace in the seventh, but he let him get to 21 outs before turning to a bullpen that was magnificent in this series.

Clay Holmes – one of eight pitchers in postseason history to have made at least 10 appearances without allowing a run – worked a perfect eighth. Luke Weaver did the same in the ninth, striking out two out of the three batters he faced to punch New York’s ticket to the next round.

“Rock solid,” Cole said of his bullpen. “Those guys have faced some ups and downs this year, and they persevered. It's made them better. They want the ball. We want them with the ball.”

There is no one the Yankees would rather have with the ball than Cole, who missed roughly half the season with a right elbow injury, took some initial lumps in his return to action and then regained his ace form in time for the stretch run.

While New York needs another eight wins to accomplish the ultimate goal – the one Cole has been chasing since he joined the club in 2020 – the ace celebrated the important first step of winning the Division Series.

“I mean, I’m fired up,” said Cole. “Had a couple of IPAs with the boys, sprayed some champagne.”

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Cole knows that for this season to be considered a success, there will have to be two more champagne celebrations.

“There's so much baseball left.” Cole said. “We're obviously confident. We're focused. We're trying to improve the brand of baseball that we're playing as we continue to get deeper into October.”