Gerrit Cole did not pitch like an ace. Aaron Judge did not do anything about his postseason demons.
Only one of the Yankees’ Big Three stars — Juan Soto — came out to play in their first playoff game of 2024.
The Yankees won anyway because some of their most denigrated players of this season — take a bow Clay Holmes, Gleyber Torres and, especially, Alex Verdugo — rose up to keep a tense Division Series opener from becoming a regrettable one for the American League’s No. 1 seed.
The 6-5 victory was not a work of art. It was good enough to gain the lead in this best-of-five, helped by strong relief work, superb outfield defense and vital late-game two-out RBI singles by Austin Wells lefty-on-lefty in the sixth inning and Verdugo for the go-ahead hit in the seventh.
Let’s begin with the bad. Cole allowed three runs in five innings. It was worse than that. There were eight balls hit 100 mph or greater against him and 11 struck 95 or better, which tied the most against the righty since tracking began in 2015. It could have been worse, but each of the Yankees outfielders — Soto, Judge and Verdugo — made limit-the-damage above-average plays.
Judge came in hitting .211 in 44 playoff games with strikeouts in exactly one-third of his plate appearances. It is the missing piece from his résumé — to excel at this time of year while helping the Yankees to a championship. And he got an instant chance to do that.
Torres walked leading off the bottom of the first and Soto produced the first of his three hits, dumping a double near the left-field line. The 48,790 at the Stadium rose to the possibility of the moment. Part of the storyline of this series is the expected AL MVP Judge vs. the likely runner-up, Kansas City shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. And in the top of the first, Judge had made a splendid running catch to keep Witt from a double, possibly a triple.
But here, with a chance to make an offensive statement as well, Judge struck out. And the mode was set for him and the Yankees. Judge would go 0-for-4 with three whiffs. The Yanks would go 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position — not scoring in the first.
But those bedraggled Yankees would have their say in this game.
Torres lofted a two-run homer to right in the third that only clears the fences in one stadium — this one — to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead. In the next half inning, MJ Melendez also hit a two-run shot off Cole that is only a homer in one stadium — this one — to put Kansas City ahead 3-2.
Boone allowed Cole to begin the sixth with a 4-3 lead against Yuli Gurriel, who had worked him for an 11-pitch walk in front of Melendez’s homer. Gurriel smashed a ball off the wall that Verdugo made a terrific play on to limit to a single. Tim Hill entered and with one out, Anthony Volpe slid on his knee to his right and fired wide at second for an error that put runners on second and third. Pinch hitter Garrett Hampson singled both in, and Kansas City led, 5-4
Boone then called on Holmes, whose arrival did not exactly thrill the crowd. Holmes lost his closer role this season and the goodwill of the fans. But he helped the Yankees steady this game by getting out of the sixth. Wells, a .197 hitter this year vs. lefties, then got the Yanks first hit with a runner in scoring position — after Judge struck out with men on the corners and one out — with a single to right against southpaw Sam Long. It scored Verdugo, who had walked to open the inning
Boone had spent the week weighing whether to start Verdugo or Jasson Dominguez in left and felt better with Verdugo’s defense. Which was rewarded, especially with his sliding catch near the left-field line to end the fourth with two on and Kansas City ahead, 3-2.
But he also had singled and walked when he came up in the seventh of a 5-5 game — after Jazz Chisholm Jr. had singled, stole second as Volpe struck out and then Oswaldo Cabrera struck out. Verdugo lashed a single to left that brought in Chisholm with what proved to be the winning run.
Luke Weaver, who has unseated Holmes as the closer, went four up, four down, three strikeouts to seal the outcome — the Yankees beating an AL Central team again at this time of year.
But in this case, it was not done with the star power. The Yankees took a one-game-to-nothing lead behind their public enemies going from boo to boom.
