Gerrit Cole came up big in Game 4, pitching like a true ace

Before his second career postseason start as a Yankee, Game 1 of the American League Division Series against the Rays in San Diego as part of the COVID-shortened 2020 season, Gerrit Cole provided a two-word answer to a simple question.

What do you specifically like about pitching at this time of year, meaning the postseason?

“The stakes,” Cole said.

It has shown.

Yankees fans spent much of the 2022 season skeptical of Cole when it came to the playoffs because of a horrible outing in last year’s loss in the AL Wild Card Game in Boston. However, the reality of his career is that he’s been good much more than bad when the games mean the most and legacies are established.

After allowing two runs and six hits in seven innings of a do-or-die Game 4 victory Sunday night that forced a Game 5 Monday night at the Stadium — which was postponed because of rain until 4:07 p.m. Tuesday — Cole improved to 10-5 with a 2.81 ERA in 16 career postseason outings.

That mark includes going 4-0 with a 1.98 ERA in four starts against Cleveland, two in this series.

Put another way, going into Game 5, the series could be summed up this way: Guardians 2, Gerrit Cole 2.

“You’re dreaming about putting yourself in that position and coming through for your team,’’ Cole said before last year’s postseason start in Boston. “And here we are.”

Things did not work out for Cole and the Yankees a night later at Fenway Park as they absorbed a 6-2 loss, a game in which he failed to get out of the third inning.

But as his record indicates, Cole has come through at this time of year far more often than not.

And though it took Yankees fans a year to get over the wild-card setback — especially given whom it came against — Cole likely bought himself some equity with Sunday night’s performance.

After taking a shocking 6-5 loss to the Guardians in Game 3, a game in which Wandy Peralta and Clarke Schmidt allowed three runs in the bottom of the ninth to erase a two-run lead, the Yankees suddenly were one loss from elimination from the playoffs.

Additionally, they went into Sunday night with a fried bullpen. They desperately needed not only an effective outing from Cole but one of considerable length.

The righthander, signed to a nine-year, $324 million free-agent deal before the 2020 season to pitch in exactly those kind of games, delivered on both fronts.

“Preparing for this game, when he [Aaron Boone] told me I was going Game 4, you know, there’s an opportunity to clinch or an opportunity to go home,’’ said Cole, who threw 110 pitches in Game 4 but texted his manager Monday morning to say he was available for anything he might need in a deciding game in which it’s typically all hands on deck. “I didn’t approach the game any different. I just went out there and did my job.”

Cole came off perhaps the oddest of his 10 years in the big leagues. He went 13-8 with a 3.50 ERA in 33 starts, which tied a career high (set in 2017). He struck out an MLB-leading 257 batters, which set a single-season franchise record, breaking the mark of 248 set by Ron Guidry in 1978. But he also allowed an AL-leading 33 homers, a personal worst, surpassing the 32 he allowed in 2017.

That also was among the reasons Yankees fans approached the postseason somewhat on pins and needles. Leading up to the playoffs, the Yankees’ decision-makers seriously debated giving the prestige of the Game 1 start to Nestor Cortes or Luis Severino.

The nod, of course, ended up going to Cole, who produced in a big way.

“Just kept making pitches all night long,” Boone said after Game 4. “And I thought [he] was just really in command of the moment. It was obviously a huge start for us and for him. And to get us that deep in the game set us up real nice.”

Cole’s 110th and final pitch was a 98-mph fastball that pinch hitter Will Brennan didn’t come close to hitting. Cole let out a guttural scream after his eighth strikeout.

“I just felt he did a really good job of handling it all and not being affected by anything that went on in the game,” Boone said. “Good, bad or indifferent, he just kept slowing himself down, making sure he executed. Obviously emptied the tank. You saw some emotion there at the end when .  .  . I think he was probably out of gas the last two, three hitters. Just a huge, big-time performance in this environment and to get us back home.”