Everything was going great for the New York Yankees. Aaron Judge made a comeback from the barren home-run stretch. The rotations were all looking positive, and they even won the recent game against the Boston Red Sox. But after 24 hours, the Yanks decided to pull off the Jekyll and Hyde act yet again. This has been the story so far this season and it continues. The Yanks lost to the Red Sox at the third meeting of their three-game series. The worst part? They were leading 1-0 in the fourth inning!

The game took a nosedive when Gerrit Cole decided to intentionally walk Rafael Devers with the empty bases and one out. This head-scratching move set out the chain of reactions that the Red Sox can only thank their stars for. But everyone was left confused about who made the call. Their catcher, Austin Wells, says he was surprised and Cole isn’t owning up to it completely. 

Gerrit Cole’s controversial call backfires

Out of sync—this is the harsh reality that one can make out of the entire ordeal. Gerrit Cole was acing it through the three innings, allowing just one baserunner. So with one out and nobody on base, Cole’s call to raise a white flag and sending Devers to first base was puzzling to most. Austin Wells was taken aback by the free pass, saying, “I was a bit caught off-guard. I wasn’t really paying too much attention. Thought [Cole] had some good momentum.” But Cole and Devers, well, they have a history!

Now Gerrit Cole and Rafael Devers are quite the nemesis. The Red Sox star has been a real pain for Cole, hitting a crazy 1.370 OPS and eight homers when they face off. So Cole might have wanted to be cautious and made the move, but it simply backfired. And well, Devers is still going to haunt Cole!

After the intentional walk, Tyler O’Neil came in, and then Masataka Yoshida followed with a ground-rule double that scored Devers. Abreu then knocked in two runs with a single and things kept going downhill until the inning ended with Devers. He drove in a two-run single and the saga continued. The game, which was supposed to be a green tick for the Yanks, turned out to be a mess with a staggering 7-1 loss. Gerrit Cole later on said, “I just mentally and physically didn’t get the job done.” But well, he did mention the confusion that led to this call. 

A mistake or a miscommunication? 

Gerrit Cole said that his decision was triggered by the fact that the team was concerned about the thin bullpen. They didn’t want to throw Devers a strike, to keep the pitch count manageable. But Cole admits, “With that being said, you have to execute after you do that, and I didn’t do that.” While Gerrit admitted his mistake, he didn’t shoulder all the blame himself. He said, “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. And that was the plan. And then during the inning, I looked to the dugout and stuck with the plan.” Here the ‘we’ means he, Boone, and their pitching coach, Matt Blake.

Aaron Boone himself shed some light on the confusion. Boone said that the team had discussed being more aggressive with their intentional walk sometimes. But once the Yanks had taken the lead, Boone wanted to be in attack Devers mode rather than walking him. “Once we scored the run [in the third inning], my preference would have been: Let’s attack him.” He highlighted Gerrit’s issue, “Gerrit was a little indecisive out there and rolled with it.” 

Well, the pre-game and in-game plans surely had a stark contrast. Failing to execute the plans well and the plan itself being lackluster showed through the game. And the harsh truth is no matter whose fault it was—the team lost!