BOSTON — Concluding a 162-game, six-month regular season with one night is both nerve wracking and cruel. But if a team is going to have its year decided by a winner-take-takes-all contest, the best antidote is having its ace, one of the elite starting pitchers in baseball, on the mound.
The Yankees had that in Gerrit Cole for the 2021 American League wild-card game on Tuesday in hostile Fenway Park against their longtime archrival. The Boston Red Sox countered with their best starting pitcher this season, Nathan Eovaldi, an All-Star like Cole.
In a meeting of imperfect and streaky 92-win teams, the Red Sox and Eovaldi thumped the Yankees and Cole, 6-2.