Cole, Tanaka both could have starts pushed back
BOSTON — If all goes according to plan this weekend, the Yankees will start lining themselves up for the playoffs.
With nine games left and the Yankees needing just two wins, or a win and Mariners loss, to clinch one of the eight American League playoffs spot, Aaron Boone can start tweaking his rotation to set up his top two starters for the first round of the playoffs. That means Gerrit Cole and Masahiro Tanaka will get their next starts pushed back a day and that will be it for them in the regular season.
“We’ll probably have Cole go on Tuesday and Tanaka on Wednesday and then Monday we could be a bullpen day, it could be Michael King, could be a number of different things,” the Yankees manager said before Saturday night’s game against the Red Sox at Fenway Park. “It could depend on how these next two games flush out too.”
With the coronavirus pandemic-shortened 60-game regular season ending Sunday against the Marlins in the Bronx, Cole will finish in that start against the Blue Jays in Buffalo on Tuesday. He will have made just 12 starts.
Tanaka’s regular season will end the following day with his 10th regular season start.
That not only gives them an extra day before these last starts, but two extra days of rest heading into a first-round of the expanded playoffs.
“There’s nothing that is exactly ideal, but yeah, these are things that we’ve gone through with them: giving them the extra day, this time between starts, and then having an extra day, into a playoff scenario,” Boone said. “I think it is the best way to go for both those guys.”
Honoring Pedro: Deivi Garcia will get to take the same mound as his pitching hero. The 21-year-old Yankees rookie wears No. 45 on his uniform belt to honor Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez.
Sunday will be his first time pitching in Fenway Park.
“I mean he’s a legend here and there were a lot of exciting games here in the stadium,” Garcia said through Yankees translator Marlon Abreu. “My dad even told me about all those great games and everything going on. ... Aroldis Chapman’s appeal of his three-game suspension has still not been decided, Boone said.
After a scheduled hearing Monday, Boone said this was something that could carry over into next year.
The closer was disciplined after an altercation with the Rays on Aug. 31 where he threw up and behind the head of pinch hitter Mike Brosseau. The chippy season series with the Rays overflowed in that game with their bench yelling at Chapman, who walked over to confront Brosseau, the benches cleared, but there was no fighting.