There was confusion about which Yankee ordered the code Red (Sox) after a strange intentional walk led to Gerrit Cole unraveling.
Cole was rolling through three innings Saturday before issuing a one-out, bases-empty intentional pass to nemesis Rafael Devers in the fourth.
Virtually everything that happened afterward was regrettable in a 7-1 Yankees loss in front of a sellout crowd of 46,378 in The Bronx.
After three innings in which he only allowed one baserunner (that baserunner of course being Devers, who was hit by a cutter in the first inning), Cole’s day turned in the fourth.
With one out and no one on base, he raised a white flag in the form of four fingers, pointing Devers to first base.
Devers has owned Cole, entering with a 1.370 OPS with eight home runs in head-to-head matchups during their careers.
No other hitter has taken Cole deep more than four times.
The decision was stunning.
The aftermath was more so.
Beginning with the walk, Cole faced 12 hitters the rest of the way and allowed 10 to reach base, pulled from the game after letting up seven runs on five hits, three walks and three hit by pitch.
Cole had allowed seven total earned runs in his previous seven starts.
Why would the Yankees opt to put Devers on base in a game they led, 1-0, with their best pitcher dealing?
Cole said the team was concerned about a bullpen that was thin and wanted to be as efficient as possible.
They did not want to throw Devers a strike, and issuing an intentional walk would be better on his arm than hoping Devers chased pitches out of the zone.
“With that being said, you have to execute after you do that,” Cole said, “and I didn’t do that.”
In meetings leading up to the game, manager Aaron Boone said, the team agreed: “We were going to be a little more aggressive [in issuing intentional walks] in some situations.”
But according to Boone, the situation that presented itself — with the lead and Cole performing — should not have been one of them.
“Once we scored the run [in the third inning], my preference would have been: Let’s attack him,” Boone said. “Gerrit was a little indecisive out there and rolled with it.”
Boone put the onus on his ace, who then did not take full responsibility. In the fourth, Cole got Jarren Duran to fly out before making a move he believed had been agreed upon.
“We were in the tunnel before the inning and had discussed that if Duran was retired, we were going to stick to aggressively, intentionally walk him,” Cole said, the “we” being himself, pitching coach Matt Blake and Boone prior to the game. “And that was the plan. And then during the inning, I looked to the dugout and stuck with the plan.”
His catcher was not part of those discussions and said he was unaware of the meetings leading up to the game.
“I was a bit caught off-guard,” Austin Wells said of the free pass. “I wasn’t really paying too much attention. Thought [Cole] had some good momentum.”
What everyone involved could agree was the decision was not the right one.
“Clearly that was a mistake,” Cole said.
Following the intentional walk, there was an unintentional walk to Tyler O’Neill.
Masataka Yoshida volleyed an RBI, ground-rule double down the left-field line, just the first hit Cole allowed.
Wilyer Abreu found a hole for a two-run single.
Triston Casas’ double play ended the frame but not the Cole nosedive.
Cole faced seven hitters in the fifth inning and recorded one out.
Trevor Story singled before Danny Jansen walked.
After an Enmanuel Valdez fly out, Cole drilled Duran with a cutter to load the bases for — who else? — Devers.
Devers entered play with a .175 average and .431 OPS in his previous 15 games.
Such sample sizes don’t matter against Cole, who had to pitch to him.
Devers smacked a two-run single into right-center to make it 5-1.
After he hit O’Neill with a fastball and allowed a single to Yoshida, Cole was yanked from the game and disappeared off the field and down the tunnel.
He had brought a no-hitter into the fourth and then melted down after sticking four fingers into the air.
What happened?
“Maybe just gave them a little bit of momentum,” Wells said.
“I just mentally and physically didn’t get the job done,” Cole said after the Yankees (86-63) halted a three-game winning streak. “There was some confusion after the discussion on was it the right move or not.
“That human element came into play. They grabbed the momentum and it inspired them.”
