Gerrit Cole watched closely from the dugout on Friday night as the Los Angeles Dodgers pulverized his teammate, the right-hander Luis Severino. Cole was starting the middle game of the weekend series between the Yankees and the Dodgers, and what he saw of the lineup across the field, which has mashed more home runs than any other National League team, had him worried.
“There are outside circumstances that sometimes kind of elevate your preparation to a certain extent,” Cole said a night later, after buzzing through the same Dodgers. “A lot of heightened awareness. I mean, they beat Sevy up really good. That’s not the most comfortable situation to go in and pitch to when you have a dynamic offense swinging the bat well.
“So, one way or another, you can’t really let it negatively affect you. You’ve got to somehow channel it to give yourself some positive energy and to go out there and give your team a chance to win the series.”
Cole and the Yankees accomplished just that over a wild, come-from-behind weekend in front of three raucous, sellout crowds at Dodger Stadium. Aaron Judge did not play during Sunday’s series-clinching 4-1 victory because of a sore and swollen right big toe that he hurt while making a sensational running catch on Saturday that carried him into — and then through — the fence in right field.
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