The Yankees and Rays are back in the postseason, and this time the setup looks a lot less surreal than their last October meeting. Their first playoff series came in San Diego with cardboard cutouts in the stands. This one starts Saturday at The Trop, which is somehow the first postseason game the Yankees have ever played there.
The schedule brings a strange twist right away. There’s an off day between Games 1 and 2 without any change in venue, a quirk that could let both clubs line up their Game 1 starters again on full rest for Game 4 if they want to go that route.
New York is going with Gerrit Cole in the opener.
That choice doesn’t exactly follow the numbers on paper. The Rays have handled right-handed pitching well this season, posting the fourth-best wRC+ and fifth-best OPS in baseball against righties.
Against lefties, though, they drop all the way to 26th and 25th in those same categories. Even so, the Yankees are clearly leaning into the simple version of the decision: Cole is their guy, and he gets the ball.
And it’s not hard to see why they’re comfortable with that call. Cole has the pedigree, and after two rough outings in San Diego and against the Mets, he finished the year strongly, including a solid start against the Rays at the Stadium. His regular-season ERA sits at 3.20, and his postseason ERA is 2.77.
That leaves the Yankees with another good problem: how to handle Carlos Rodón. The numbers suggested Rodón should have been the choice, and his recent track record would have supported that too.
But in a short series, the Yankees are trusting the arm they trust most. Rodón still figures to matter, whether that’s in Game 3 or Game 4 back in New York.
If Cole’s first start goes well, he could technically come back on regular rest and face Drew Rasmussen again in Game 4. That’s the kind of rotation flexibility the Yankees are working with here - not a scramble, but a luxury.
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Only Freddy Peralta of the Tampa Bay Rays remains active in the postseason mix, while others such as Clay Holmes, Tyrone Taylor and David Peterson have barely surfaced in playoff action. For the Mets, that shift matters because deadline deals are always measured by more than return value in July, and this one is now being viewed through a very different October lens. [Read more 🡒]
One Of The Strangest Mets Pitching Feats Still Stands Alone
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The game itself was replayed the next day and did not count in the standings, but Gardners individual numbers from that day still do. More than six decades later, his 15-inning outing remains the Mets record, untouched by every starter and reliever who has followed. [Read more 🡒]
Mets History Has One No-Hit Pattern Fans Will Want To Argue Over
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Jim Bunnings perfect game in 1964 and Max Scherzers no-hitter in 2015 sit near the top of that list for very different reasons, and the outcomes around those games were not always the same from one side of a twin bill to the next. Some of those Mets doubleheader no-hit games ended in losses, others in wins, which is part of what makes the pattern worth arguing about. It is not just a trivia quirk, either - it is a reminder that with this team, even the most brutal history often comes with a twist. [Read more 🡒]