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New York Yankees starting pitcher Gerrit Cole practically said no más on the mound Saturday when Boston Red Sox star Rafael Devers came to the plate in the top of the fourth inning.
Cole issued an intentional walk to Devers, who came into the contest batting 13-for-39 with eight home runs in his career off the six-time All-Star, even though there was nobody on base.
Cole said the decision was jointly made between him, manager Aaron Boone and pitching coach Matt Blake. And Boone offered up his side of the story after Boston's 7-1 win as it was clear the Yankees were willing to do anything to not let Devers beat them again.
"Something going in and just working through preparation this week with Gerrit that we were going to be a little more aggressive in some situations," Boone told reporters, per the YES Network. "I talked about it with no one on there and then simple as that. And then we didn't get the rest of the outs there."
The Yankees had a 1-0 lead at the time of the intentional walk to Devers courtesy of an RBI single from Gleyber Torres in the bottom of the third. That changed the equation in Boone's mind, but the Yankees manager failed to speak up and change the plan.
"Once we scored the run, my preference would have been let's attack him, but obviously I didn't communicate that well enough," Boone said. "And I think Gerrit was a little indecisive out there and rolled with it but then in the end, we just didn't get enough outs from there."
Cole hadn't allowed a hit when he faced Devers in the fourth inning, but quickly unraveled after the free pass. Cole surrendered three runs in the fourth and then four more in the fifth with two of those runs coming on a single from Devers -- his third at-bat against Cole came with the bases loaded so there was no option of intentionally walking the Red Sox slugger again. Masataka Yoshida then knocked Cole from the game when he produced a two-run single to center to score Devers and Jarren Duran.
It certainly was puzzling to see a pitcher of Cole's caliber -- he won the American League Cy Young Award last season -- completely bypass an at-bat in the fashion that he did. But Boone wants Cole to be ready to face Devers again in the future.
"I think this has been one of those things in his career that obviously Raffy has had some success against him. Something that he also has to get through, too," Boone said. "Making sure he understands like, 'Hey, the next 40 or 50 at-bats in my career against him I might have massive success because I'm Gerrit Cole.' But there is a psychological component to all that in making sure we're in a good spot there to where he's controlling the game a little bit."
