Gerrit Cole’s explanation for Yankees' fifth inning blunder makes absolutely no sense

As the fallout from the Yankees nightmarish Game 5 loss to end the World Series continues, surely the fact they lost both games in the series started by ace Gerrit Cole factors in. Cole (mostly) did his part, pitching into the seventh inning in both starts and allowing only one earned run in 12.2 innings of work.

It capped off a postseason where he posted a 2.17 ERA in five starts and 29 innings. He’s only the second active pitcher with four World Series starts of six or more innings, a list that previously included only Justin Verlander.

However, when the history is written, it will highlight the catastrophic fifth inning Wednesday night, when everything unravelled; Cole played a key role in that undoing, failing to cover first base on a bases loaded, two out Mookie Betts grounder to first baseman Anthony Rizzo.

Unfortunately, his explanation for a failure to do something he’s been doing since Little League - sprinting to cover first base - makes absolutely no sense.

Cole gave a nonsensical blurb afterwards, saying, “I took a bad angle to the ball. I wasn't sure really off the bat how hard he hit it. I took a direct angle to it, as if to cut it off because I just didn't know how hard he hit it. By the time the ball got by me, I was not in position to cover first. Neither of us were, based on the spin of the baseball and him having to secure it. Just a bad read off the bat."

What the ... what kind of explanation is that from Yankees ace Gerrit Cole?

Just like Betts sprinting up the first base line as fast as he could is fundamental baseball, Cole sprinting to cover the bag on a grounder to his first baseman is fundamental baseball. It’s based on work done from the very first day of spring training on Pitchers Fielding Practice (PFP). Once a pitcher releases the pitch, they become a fielder.

But Cole blew his role in that situation, opening up the floodgates for the Dodgers to score five unearned runs in the top of that fifth - the most in World Series history - on two errors and Cole’s blunder.

Call it the ‘Curse of Fat Joe’ like Dodgers reliever Joe Kelly if you like, but this goes much deeper than that. According to Joel Sherman of the NY Post, Los Angeles game planned for exactly these types of blunders: “What the Dodgers told their players in scouting meetings was the Yankees were talent over fundamentals. That if you run the bases with purpose and aggression, the Yankees will self-inflict harm as was exposed by Betts, Tommy Edman, Freddie Freeman, etc. That the value was very high to put the ball in play to make the Yankees execute.”

Well, Betts certainly caused the Yankees to self-inflict harm by running out his grounder to Rizzo with purpose and aggression. That’s the sign of a better coached, better prepared and better running team. Cole’s failure to execute and his subsequent excuse is embarrassing in comparison.

Whether or not any of this “baseball fundamentals” argument will lead to changes in how GM Brian Cashman builds out his roster for 2025 and beyond, or how manager Aaron Boone and his coaching staff prepare their players in spring training and throughout the season, will be another question hanging over the offseason.

As Game 1 goat Nestor Cortes said after they lost the series, “Baseball comes down to execution, right? If you don’t execute and the other team does it better than you, then they’re obviously going to win. And that’s what we ran into in the series, where they execute a lot of plays.”