Cole, Bieber square off
Yanks’ ace takes on Cy Young favorite in opener of AL best-of-three series
Shane Bieber’s first playoff appearance for Cleveland will come against the team that personifies postseason baseball excellence.
No pressure.
Bieber and the Indians are ready.
“We’re fired up,” said the lock to win the AL Cy Young Award. “We think this is a good matchup.”
Bieber and New York’s Gerrit Cole meet in a Game 1 marquee meeting of two of the game’s best pitchers.
The 60-game sprint is about to speed up some more as the 16-team bracket will be chopped quickly in half by best-of-three series. There is no margin for error — each pitch, each out, each inning is magnified maybe like never before in the pandemic playoffs.
“Every game, you have to treat it as a must-win,” Indians acting manager Sandy Alomar Jr. said.
And because of the condensed schedule, the Indians and Yankees will be meeting for the first time in 2020.
“Yeah, it’s a strange year overall,” said Alomar, who has filled in while manager Terry Francona tackled some medical issues.
Pitching will be more of a premium than ever, which is why the Indians feel so confident because Bieber will get them started.
Nobody’s been better in 2020 than the 25-year-old Bieber, who pulled off a rare “triple crown” by leading the league in wins (8), ERA (1.63) and strikeouts (122). He dominated, not allowing a run in six of his 12 starts and racking up doubledigit strikeouts eight times.
“The guy’s a stud,” said Indians catcher Roberto Perez.
The Yankees know what they ’re up against in Bieber, who ascended from 2019 AllStar Game add-on to MVP to staff ace in the blink of an eye.
“He has really taken another step from what was an amazing year for him last year,” said New York manager Aaron Boone.
“We also love that challenge. You love the opportunity to
compete against the best. We’ll put together a game plan and hopefully be able to go out and ding him a little bit.”
For Cole, the start and maybe more of them in October, are the reason the Yankees signed him to a nine-year, $324 million free agent contract this winter. The right-hander went 7-3 in 12 starts, but none of them were as big as this one.
“Whether I was getting paid what I’m getting paid, or playing for the team I’m playing for, I take the same approach every
time I go out there,” said Cole. “I just go out and try to do my job.”
The Indians enter the playoffs playing their best ball with nine wins — several of them on walk-offs — in their past 11.
The Yankees, on the other hand, dropped six of eight.
Jose Ramirez carried Cleveland to the finish line and himself to the front part of the MVP race. Over his past 16 games, he , batted .416 with eight homers and 20 RBIS. His last 11 hits went for extra bases.