Derek Jeter criticizes Aaron Boone’s Game 1 handling of Gerrit Cole

After the New York Yankees lost Game 1 of the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers, Yankee legend and Fox analyst Derek Jeter questioned the decision-making of New York’s manager, Aaron Boone.

Starting pitcher Gerrit Cole delivered a big game for the Yankees. Cole allowed only one run on four hits. Also, as Cole didn’t walk anyone and only struck out four hitters, his pitch count was at a modest 88 after six innings. But, with the Yankees leading 2-1, Boone went to his bullpen.

After the game, Jeter questioned the strategy.

“I know we talk about this all the time and I don’t want to be one of these guys that say, ‘Back in the day when we played,'” Jeter said. “But when we were playing the Mets in 2000, Al Leiter pitched Game 6. He threw 140-something pitches — 140-something pitches. Gerrit Cole was dominating this game. He was dominating the game. And if you take him out after 88 pitches for I don’t know what reason, it’s a domino effect on not only this game tonight, tomorrow’s game, and the rest of this series. I just think when you have someone that’s dealing like Gerrit Cole was dealing tonight, you leave him out there as long as you can.”

“Gerrit Cole was dominating this game… And if you take him out after 88 pitches for I don’t know what reason, it’s a domino effect on not only this game tonight, tomorrow’s game, and the rest of this series.” – Derek Jeter on Aaron Boone’s decisionpic.twitter.com/DpfEYNmFpu

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 26, 2024

We’re assuming Jeter was referring to Game 5 of the 2000 World Series against the New York Mets, as his Yankees won that series in five games. But his memory is otherwise on point. Leiter threw 142 pitches in that game, pitching into the ninth inning. On the surface, we could even argue that Boone had less reason to remove Cole than Bobby Valentine did with Al Leiter in 2000. Game 5 of the 2000 World Series was a home game for the Mets — the National League champion. With no DH, Leiter came to the plate three times. With the universal DH in place, that was not a concern for Boone in Game 1 on Friday.

Jeter is also correct in his commentary about a potential domino effect. Ryan Ruocco criticized the decision to have Nestor Cortes pitch in the ninth inning instead of Tim Hill. That’s a perfectly valid criticism of a decision that might have cost the Yankees one game. That said, the backlash is largely limited to Game 1. Going to the bullpen earlier than you should stretches multiple relief pitchers out, potentially weakening them for future games.

That said, it’s also important to know what Cole has done recently.

Cole averaged 14.6 pitches per inning on Friday. One more inning at that rate would have put him somewhere just north of 100 pitches. Admittedly, that doesn’t sound like a whole lot for a top pitcher like Cole. That said, Game 1 marked Cole’s 14th start since the beginning of August. In the previous 13, he threw 100 pitches only once — 101 in his final start of the regular season. In his first three postseason starts, Cole never even reached 90 pitches. So, while he was dominating, sending Cole out for another inning wouldn’t have been without risk.

That’s not to say that Jeter is wrong. But certainly, a lot has changed in baseball in the last quarter century. So, while the Yankees leaving Cole in the game might have been what Jeter wanted to say, it wasn’t a slam dunk.

[Photo Credit: Fox Sports 1]