The pressure is now all on Gerrit Cole to make this World Series really interesting

Gerrit Cole gave up the historic ace at this time of year and insisted on taking the ball as his team faced elimination in Game 4.

Fine.

Still, the Yankees won Tuesday night with him as their cheerleader.

So now he has to do the modern ace thing. He is completely rested. The way the Yankees envisioned laying the building blocks for a baseball miracle was to win Game 4 when the Dodgers threw a bullpen game and then turned to their ace to do it again to lug across the country. In particular, the bottom of the Yankee order and the length of their bullpen — essentially co-stars — were the linchpin of an 11-4 season-saving victory Tuesday night.

“We won a game and the best pitcher in baseball is standing in front of us [Wednesday] “Obviously gives us a sense of hope to bring this back to LA,” said Nestor Cortes.

In Cole's right hand will lie the Yankee season, a part of his legacy and a chance to make a little history as the Yankees try to make the larger story that motivates documentaries.

The smaller story is that none of the 24 previous teams that lost three games to zero in a World Series even forced a Game 6. The Yankees became just the fourth of now 25 to escape a sweep.

“You have your man on the hill, you have the regent [AL] Cy Young Award winner,” Luke Weaver said. “You have the guy who was great in Game 1. He has everything he needs in his arsenal. Let him go and see what happens.”

Cole received what was then the largest pitching contract in history for this game. For the Yankees. For themselves. They wanted the ace that could take them to the Canyon of Heroes. Cole wanted to win championships that eluded him. Here he is, in his fifth year of marriage, with a Yankee season and his legacy in play. With a game that is life-saving for a team and a barometer for himself.

“That’s one of the most important things we talked about [after falling behind 0-3]“said Jose Trevino. “Put the ball in Cole’s hands and then put the ball in Rodon’s hands and then, after that, we’ll see what happens.”

They are still far from what is happening, far from even guaranteeing a trip back to Los Angeles. So it's up to Cole – now at full rest and with the opportunity to empty whatever tank he has left in 2024 – to get the Yankees back on a plane in 2024. Force the Dodgers to think more seriously about the historic implications of a three-games-to-nil lead.

Cole said there were no talks about him coming up short in Game 4. With the right winger missing the first two months of the season with an elbow injury, Aaron Boone didn't think it prudent to apply pressure even with the season on the brink.

But now at full rest, and with the Yankees using relievers for 11¹/₃ of the 18 innings on Monday and Tuesday, Cole will have to cover at least the six innings on 88 pitches he pitched in Game 1 while giving up one run. They need a star to honor the supporting cast that allowed the Yankees to avoid the shame of being defeated.

The bottom third of the Yankees' lineup hit 4-for-34 (.118) with 12 strikeouts in this best-of-seven. But Anthony Volpe, Austin Wells and Alex Verdugo had great at-bats and drove in the Yankees' first seven runs. Volpe stood out the most. His third-inning grand slam was game-changing and revitalized the previously volumeless crowd of 49,354. Volpe, who was a Yankees fan as an eight-year-old when he attended the Canyon of Heroes parade in 2009, played a game worthy of his idol, Derek Jeter. He made a couple of brilliant defensive plays, stole two bases and used his bat and legs to get the first of a five-run break-the-game opener in the eighth inning.

The score was 7-4 in that first run, and to that point Gleyber Torres, Juan Soto, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton had gone hitless in 11 at-bats. But Torres hit a three-run home run, Soto doubled and Judge drove in his first run of the World Series.

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At that point, the Dodgers were in full punt mode, playing a bullpen game and refusing to use any of their four key relievers — left-handers Anthony Banda and Alex Vesia and right-handers Michael Kopech and Blake Treinen. They will all be fresh to support Game 5 starter Jack Flaherty, who pitched so well against Cole in Game 1.

Maybe this is a successful strategy. But it allowed a number of Yankee hitters to feel good and make the Bronx crowd feel very Bronx-like again (with the promise of more on Wednesday) and ensure that the ball got to the Yankee ace would reach.

“In the back of our minds we knew how bad one loss and two and three felt,” Clay Holmes said. “We knew what a win could feel like and we have Gerrit tomorrow and then maybe some momentum could build.”

The ball and the story are in Gerrit Cole's right hand.