NEW YORK — Gerrit Cole had just walked Mookie Betts leading off the seventh inning with the Yankees leading by one run when Aaron Boone walked slowly to the mound.
After an eight-second conversation, the New York manager left in his ace.
Seven pitches later, Max Muncy drove a hanging slider into the right-field second deck, lifting the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 2-1 victory Friday night in their first game back in the Bronx since winning the first of consecutive World Series titles in 2024.
“On me,” Boone said three times after the game along with three variations of “I probably should grab him there.”
In his 10th major league start since returning in May from Tommy John surgery, Cole took a three-hit shutout with eight strikeouts into the seventh.
New York led on an unearned run against Roki Sasaki in the fourth. Jasson Domínguez doubled, took third when center fielder Andy Pages dropped the ball while picking it up by the warning track and scored on Dalton Rushing’s passed ball.
Cole fell behind Betts 3-0, got a pair of called strikes and missed outside with a fastball. With a pair of left-handed hitters coming up in Muncy and Kyle Tucker, Boone had lefty Brent Headrick warmed up in the bullpen.
When Boone started to the mound, Cole thought he had a chance to remain in the game.
“I figured he was going to give me a conversation,” the 35-year-old right-hander said. “He asked me to get Muncy and I said, `Of course.’”
While some teams rely on pitch counts and formulas, at this stage of Cole’s season Boone went with his own evaluation.
“You’re reading body language. You’re reading conversation,” Boone explained. “I have a thought in my head going out there, so I’m making the decision as I’m walking out there.”
Cole got ahead 0-2 in the count against Muncy, who then fouled off a changeup. A slider at the top, outside corner was called a ball.
“I was like, dude, it’s so close,” Cole said. “I mean, I feel like under an inch it’s like flip it. You’ve just got to kind of I guess go with your gut, but at the same time my mindset is I can always make another pitch.”
Muncy fouled off a slider, took an outside fastball and drove Cole’s 103rd and final pitch 416 feet into the right-field second deck. Cole turned his neck briefly, didn’t bother to watch the ball land and slapped his bare hand into his glove.
“I didn’t really give the pitch a chance,” Cole said. “He pulled out a great swing.”
Muncy left Yankee Stadium without speaking with reporters.
“It was a tough decision for Boonie,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Max spoiled some good pitches and then got a pitch in his wheelhouse and put a good swing on it.”
Los Angeles last played in the Bronx in Game 5 of the 2024 Series when Cole had a 5-0 lead. Errors by the 2023 AL Cy Young Award winner and Aaron Judge in center led to five unearned runs in the fifth. Los Angeles went on to win 7-6 and take the title.
Great defensive play by Pages and Betts
On a night with smoke in the air from Canadian wildfires, Los Angeles began the second half by improving to a big league-best 62-36. New York (54-43) dropped to 18-20 without Judge, still sidelined by a fractured rib.
New York’s Trent Grisham was thrown out trying to score from first on Ben Rice’s eighth-inning double off the right-center field wall.
Pages picked up the ball on a bounce, wheeled and made a throw to Betts that tailed. With his back to the plate, the shortstop moved to his left to catch it and threw across his body.
Rushing caught the relay about 5 feet up the first-base line, swiped his mitt across the plate and tagged the left leg of a sliding Grisham.
“We gave one away I thought early with the defense and to make a play like that defensively was big,” Roberts said.
Boone didn’t fault third base coach Luis Rojas for the send. Grisham, who returned July 3 from a strained right hamstring, didn’t run hard off the bat and then sped up.
“I’m conscious of my hammy. I’m coming back from it,” Grisham said.
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