The New York Yankees won’t resume their bid to win the World Series for the first time since 2009 until Friday. Still, manager Aaron Boone revealed his selection of starting pitcher for Monday’s Game 1 game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
This choice was not surprising.
Gerrit Cole, the 2023 American League Cy Young Award winner and the team’s highest-paid pitcher, will be given his first start at the start of the historic World Series.
According to Aaron Boone, Gerrit Cole is scheduled to start Game 1.
— Chris Kirschner (@ChrisKirschner) October 21, 2024
Cole, 34, posted an 8-5 record with a 3.41 ERA in the regular season after missing nearly the entire first half of the season recovering from an elbow injury.
He started three games for the Yankees in the postseason, posting a 1-0 record with a 3.31 ERA. Cole last pitched in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series against the Cleveland Guardians, where the Yankees won 6-3, allowing two runs in 4.1 innings.
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Cole is a Southern California native who started two World Series games for the Houston Astros in 2019. The right-handed pitcher started Games 1 and 5 of that series for Houston, losing Game 1 and winning Game 2. The Astros lost the series to the Washington Nationals in seven games.
Cole started the Yankees’ first postseason game every time he played in New York through October. This will be his first World Series appearance since signing a nine-year, $324 million contract with New York in December 2019.
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Cole spent 12 seasons with the Yankees, Astros and Pittsburgh Pirates, posting a 153-80 record with a 3.18 ERA in 317 regular season games. Cole, a six-time All-Star, will make his next start in 2024, his 21st game. A year ago, when the Yankees failed to qualify for the postseason, Cole started an American League-leading 33 games.
New York is seeking its first World Series championship since defeating the Philadelphia Phillies in 2009.
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The Yankees finished the regular season with a record of 94 wins and 68 losses, the best in the American League, and are 7 wins and 2 losses this postseason. It’s been a remarkable turnaround since 2023, when his streak of six consecutive postseason appearances came to a surprising halt.
The Dodgers stand in the way of the Yankees, who are aiming for a record 28th World Series victory. The Dodgers defeated the New York Mets on Sunday to qualify for the World Series for the first time since 2020.
The Dodgers and Yankees have met 12 times in the World Series. From 1941 to 1981, the two teams met 11 times for the championship, but their success hasn’t been matched since.
For more World Series news, check out Newsweek Sports.
