The New York Yankees will send Gerrit Cole back to the mound in Game 4 of the ALDS on Thursday against the Kansas City Royals and he’ll face the same opponent on the hill as the series opener.
The Royals will give Michael Wacha the ball again, as announced by manager Matt Quatraro on Tuesday, per Anne Rogers. Wacha gave up three earned runs in four innings of work in Game 1 before exiting. The Yankees ultimately won 6-5. Cole meanwhile wasn’t at his best but he kept his ball club in the game, tossing five frames and giving up four runs (three earned).
Game 3 of the series is scheduled for Wednesday and will be a pivotal one. The Yankees made a surprising decision to start Clarke Schmidt instead of Luis Gil, who was one of their most consistent arms all year. Gil is expected to return to the rotation if New York advances to the ALCS.
KC bounced back in Game 2 on Monday with a 4-2 win. They got to Carlos Rodon early, tagging the lefty for four earned runs on seven hits in just 3.2 innings. That was all the offense they needed, with Cole Ragans throwing four innings of one-run baseball before handing things over to the bullpen, who did a fantastic job of limiting the Yankees lineup.
Despite the Game 2 loss, Jazz Chisholm made it clear that New York is still extremely confident about moving on. Via MLB.com:
“It still feels the same, that we’re going to win it,” Chisholm said. “I don’t feel like anybody feels any different. We’re going to go out there and do our thing still; we still don’t feel like any team is better than us. We had a lot of missed opportunities tonight, so they just got lucky.”
We’ll see if those words come true. The Yankees will need the best version of Gerrit Cole in Game 4.
