As expected, Cole on hill with season on line

Maybe this wasn’t the exact moment the Yankees envisioned when they signed Gerrit Cole to be their ace nearly three winters ago, but it was close. Anything less than a World Series is considered a disappointment for the Yankees and the club signed Cole to a nine-year, $324 million contract to help them win World Series championships.

But the Yankees knew they had to get to the World Series first and in order to do that they needed a win in Game 4 of the ALDS on Sunday night.

Cole was on the mound at Progressive Field to try to extend the series against the Guardians one night after a gutting loss. The Yankees blew a 5-3 lead in Game 3 as Cleveland walked it off to take a 2-1 series lead. Cleveland needed just one more win to advance to the

ALCS, where the Astros were waiting.

Cole picked up the win in Game 1 by allowing just one earned run in 6.1 innings and he went into Sunday night trying to repeat the feat to get the series back to The Bronx.

“Familiarity, probably,” Cole said Saturday, when asked about the challenges of facing the same team twice in one series. “Familiarity and then, you know, if you run into somebody that’s hot, usually that spans the course of the series.”

Cole might have grown up across the country in sunny Southern California but it wasn’t the Dodgers or the hometown Angels that did it for him. He was a Yankee fan in Orange County and he always seemed destined to wear pinstripes. Cole relishes the chilly October games because of what they represent.

But the pinstripes can be heavy and no one is immune to the scrutiny of playing in the New York market. Even Aaron Judge was booed at Yankee Stadium in Game 2.

The players that are the most revered are the ones who win in the postseason. Cole did not win in the postseason last year, lasting only two innings in the Wild Card Game against the Red Sox. Fans questioned his ace credentials, which was a silly thing to do given his body of work.

But Cole made good on that contract in Game 1 and he went into Sunday night hoping to do it again in Game 4. The Yankees had to find a way to turn the page on the disappointment and it started with Cole.

He was facing a hostile crowd and a lineup that would make him work for every out, but he was the exact player the Yankees wanted on the hill in a do-or-die game like this.