NEW YORK — The Yankees have not looked this lost in nearly three years. On Friday night, they are handing the ball to the one arm built for a moment like this.
Gerrit Cole draws the start in the series opener against the Minnesota Twins at Yankee Stadium. His job is simple to describe and hard to do. He needs to stop the bleeding.
New York enters the night on a seven-game losing streak. The Yankees have dropped 10 of their last 12 games. The slide has pushed them four games behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East.
This is the worst stretch the Yankees have endured since Aug. 12-22, 2023, when they lost nine in a row. The timing stings, with the trade deadline a month away and the roster still searching for rhythm.
Yet few pitchers in baseball have a better history against this specific opponent. That is what makes Friday such a clear opportunity for Cole and for the Yankees.
Rotation woes put the ball in Cole’s hands
The rotation is the reason the Yankees need a stopper in the first place. New York has not recorded a quality start since June 24, when Ryan Weathers went six innings in a 4-2 win over the Detroit Tigers.
Since that outing, Yankees starters own a 5.34 ERA across 32 innings. The bullpen has actually held up well, posting a 2.08 ERA over 30 1/3 innings in the same span. The math is unforgiving. When the rotation cannot go deep, the whole staff frays.
Cole is still rebuilding his own form after Tommy John surgery. He is 2-3 with a 4.06 ERA across seven starts since returning. He is not yet the pitcher who won the 2023 AL Cy Young Award. Even so, opponents are hitting just .220 against him with a .290 on-base mark.
His most recent start hinted at progress. Cole worked 5 1/3 innings against the Boston Red Sox last Saturday and allowed four runs on seven hits in a 4-1 loss. All the damage came early. He gave up four runs in the first three innings, including a two-run double to Willson Contreras, then retired nine of the final 11 batters he faced before giving way to left-hander Brent Headrick.
Boone and Wells see Cole trending up
Manager Aaron Boone has not hidden from the team’s struggles. He was blunt about the week that put his club in this hole.
“It’s been a terrible week for us. There’s no way of sugarcoating it,” Boone said.
Boone was more encouraged by how Cole finished against Boston. He saw a pitcher who stopped fighting himself and started attacking.
“The last three or four innings, I thought he really got aggressive,” Boone said.
Catcher Austin Wells caught that turn in real time. He described a pitcher slowly rediscovering his old self after a shaky first few innings.
“There’s going to be little things you slowly start to unlock and start to feel like yourself again,” Wells said.
History points the Yankees’ way against Minnesota
If Cole is going to break through, the Twins are a friendly place to start. He has never lost to them. In six career starts against Minnesota, Cole is 5-0 with a 2.43 ERA and 53 strikeouts in 34 innings.
The franchise trend is even more lopsided. The Yankees are 125-44 against the Twins since 2022. They are 60-17 against Minnesota at Yankee Stadium since 2002, and they have not lost a home series to the Twins since 2014.
The dominance carries into October, too. New York has gone 16-2 against Minnesota in the postseason since 2022, including 13 straight playoff wins. Under Boone, whose tenure began in 2018, the Yankees are 23-13 against the Twins.
One name to watch is Byron Buxton. The Minnesota center fielder has some pop against Cole, going 2-for-7 with two home runs. But Buxton has struggled at Yankee Stadium overall, hitting .158 in 18 career games in the Bronx.
A slumping offense still has to wake up
Cole cannot fix everything alone. The Yankees offense has gone cold at the worst time, and the Twins are sending capable arms to the Bronx.
Minnesota lines up Mike Paredes, Zebby Matthews, and Joe Ryan across the three games. Ryan, slated for Sunday’s finale, has been the toughest of the group and has handled the Yankees before.
The Twins arrive at 42-46 and are widely expected to sell before the Aug. 3 deadline for a second straight year. Catcher Ryan Jeffers, a name Yankees fans have tracked as a trade target, remains on the injured list with a broken hamate bone and will not play in this series.
For now, the story starts on the mound. The Yankees are 48-38 and still hold the second-best record in the American League, a reminder that this skid has not erased a strong season. Cole is the man tasked with steadying it. First pitch on Friday will tell the next chapter.
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