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New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who's always tinkering with the lineup, made it abundantly clear that he will not start Gerrit Cole in Game 4 of the World Series on short rest, per MLB insider Bryan Hoch.
“There is no scenario in which Gerrit Cole starts Game 4 on short rest, Aaron Boone said. Boone said he wouldn’t want to do that considering Cole’s injury issue earlier this year,” per Hoch.
The Yankees are down 2-0 with Game 3 at home Monday night. Clarke Schmidt will start for New York. The righty has made two appearances this postseason, going for 4.2 innings in each.
How Yankees can avoid falling in 3-0 hole
ClutchPoints' David Rooney believes the Yankees must adjust Aaron Judge and Juan Soto spots in the lineup.
“What Yankees manager Aaron Boone must do is have Judge and Soto switch places in the batting order. During the time immediately after the Yankees acquired Soto before the 2024 season began, there was plenty of discussion about where each of the two superstars would hit in the lineup.
“For much of his career in pinstripes, Judge hit in the two-hole, where he would get plenty of at-bats without hitting leadoff. The Yankees did occasionally try him out at leadoff, but too many of his home runs were essentially wasted as solo shots. The team needed him to hit with runners on base, and batting him second afforded them the best of both worlds.”
The Dodgers have had in-game heroics from multiple hitters. Whether it's Tommy Edman's dominance against lefty pitchers or timely home runs from Kike Hernandez, Teoscar Hernandez or Freddie Freeman, the lineup has found ways to step up.
It's easy to pinpoint and focus on Aaron Judge, but many of the Yankees' hitters have been far too inconsistent at the plate. Just like Shohei Ohtani finding more success with runners in scoring position, the Yankees must find ways to get Judge to the plate with runners on base more frequently.
There's a mountain of pressure on the Yankees and Boone. For what it's worth, New York's manager has navigated the scrutiny well, as pointed out by former Yanks' manager Joe Girardi, via ESPN's Buster Olney.
“I think he does a fantastic job, because he's always under scrutiny,” Girardi said. “Because that's the job in New York, unless you win a championship. You could overachieve with a team that people thought would win 90 games, and you win 92-93 games — and the response is, ‘Yeah, but they didn't win a World Series.'”
New York are the slight betting favorites in Game 3 as Schmidt matches up against RHP Walker Buehler.
