World Series moment: Gerrit Cole joined Yankees to pitch in big spots like Game 1 vs. Dodgers

LOS ANGELES — Gerrit Cole has pitched in his share of big games in his career and has had his share of success in them.

The key?

“I think the challenge in big games is to make them really no bigger than they really are,” Cole said Thursday. “It's the same game we've been playing all year.”

It is and it isn’t.

The Yankees are in the World Series for the first time since 2009, also the last time they won a championship.

In Game 1 on Friday night at Dodger Stadium, they will give the ball to Cole, whom they envisioned pitching in these kinds of games pretty much from the time they signed him to a nine-year, $324-million contract in December 2019.

And Cole has never shied from the responsibility.

“I feel like, to a certain extent, I really enjoy these moments,” said Cole, a Southern California native who grew up about 1 ½ hours south of here as a Yankees fan in Newport Beach. “Just personally, I think that may be part of experiencing a lot of them along the way, but also just the excitement that comes with competing against the best.”

To this point in his career, Cole has been able to more than hold his own on the pressure cauldron that is the postseason. The righthander is 11-6 with a 2.98 ERA in 20 career postseason starts, including 1-0 with a 3.31 ERA in three starts in these playoffs.

That includes Game 4 of the Division Series in Kansas City when Cole, hit hard in Game 1 by the Royals, allowed one run and six in seven innings in the Yankees' 3-1 series-clinching victory.

“There was no room for failure. He was going to succeed. He was going to get it done,” Jon Berti said on Thursday of what he saw of Cole from his position at first base that night in Kansas City. “He was going to get us the win, and he was going to die trying. It was pretty impressive to watch.”

Cole, 34, has been on the World Series stage one previous time in his career and came up agonizingly short of a title. It came in 2019 when Cole was a member of the Astros.

Facing the Nationals, who featured a 20-year-old rookie phenom named Juan Soto, Cole allowed five runs and eight hits in seven innings in Game 1. Soto did his share of damage with a homer and a double.

But Cole rebounded with a brilliant Game 5, allowing one run and three hits in seven innings, striking out nine in a 7-1 victory that gave the Astros a 3-2 series lead. But the Astros would lose both games back home at Minute Maid Park, where they lost all four games of the series.

From Day 1 in a Yankees uniform — meaning his December 2019 introductory press conference when he first donned his pinstriped No. 45 jersey — Cole talked about how coming so close served as a motivator.

"I’m as hungry as ever to finish that journey," Cole said that day at the Stadium. “And in my opinion, there would be no better place to do it than in New York.”

The Yankees are four wins from the completion of that journey, with a balanced and dangerous Dodgers lineup in their way.

That lineup starts right out of the gate with leadoff hitter Shohei Ohtani, who hit 54 homers — second-most in the majors to Aaron Judge’s 58 — and stole 59 bases. There is also Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Teoscar Hernandez, Max Muncy, Enrique Hernandez… and more.

“You obviously know of the talent and know of the prowess of the other team and how they can swing the bat with efficacy,” Cole said. “I think that they are going to get their hits at some point in this series. They are good players and they obviously have played really well to this point… you just try to control what you can control in that situation. That's preparing like you normally do and throwing as many convicted pitches as you can.”

It goes without saying, the Yankees could not be more confident in the fact it will be Cole throwing those pitches in Game 1.

Cole, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, had some ups and downs after starting the season on the injured list with right elbow inflammation, going 8-5 with a 3.41 ERA after his season began on June 19. He started more resembling the pitcher he was in 2023 down the stretch, going 5-3 with a 2.20 ERA over his final eight starts.

As Carlos Rodon — who will start Game 2 for the Yankees — said of Cole: “He’s the guy you want on the mound for Game 1. For sure.”