Cole saves the day (as will be expected in the Wild Card playoff)

Thanks to our ace, Gerrit Cole, the Death Barge's losing streak ended at four last night. 

And thanks to our dear friends, the Baltimore Orioles, this holiday weekend shapes up as a chance to solidify our tenuous hold on the home field advantage for the 2021 Wild Card. 

That one-game playoff - now 29 games off - could pit Cole against Boston's Chris Sale, a certifiable Yankee nightmare in his previous incarnation, before elbow surgery. Excuse me if I don't jump for joy at the prospect of facing Sale in a one-game gauntlet. 

As for last night:

1. I think we saw Boone's October bullpen closing protocol. (For now, anyway.) Jonathan Loaisiga pitched the eighth, and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make, El Chapo. It was always going to be the Chapster, who will either show command - in which case we have a chance - or our demise will resemble the fall of the Afghani government. Last night, Aroldis threw a 1-2-3 ninth, his first since August 23 against Atlanta. In his last six outings, he has thrown two perfect innings. I don't mean to hang an impossible task on Chapman - no pitcher is always perfect - and nobody will ever accuse him of phoning it in. He's a valiant warrior, throwing his hardest, even when it's clear he has nothing. Still, it's hard to imagine the guy holding up through a wild card, a divisional playoff, a championship series and a world series. Nope. We needed a Zack Britton for that level of fantasy. And Britton is gone.

2. When the post-season awards come around, the Japanese Babe Ruth will obviously take most of the hardware. But Aaron Judge should be one of the MVP front-runners. He has 30 HRs, and his next hit will vault him over .300 in that obviously meaningless statistic: batting average. He is a gold glove RF (who needs to play CF in the stretch, especially with Brett Gardner stumbling; Gardy went 1-4 last night, increasing his BA to .214.) Now and then, I ponder the worst case scenario: Judge tweaks something. He cannot be replaced. Judge has elevated his game, one of the best in baseball, and Shohei Ohtani wasn't the only great one on the field last night.

(I write the above to indemnify myself against the things I will say next time Judge goes 0-4 with three Ks.) 

3. Three game against the O's, then four against Toronto and three vs the Merry Mets. In our last 29 games, we have 13 against tomato cans - (Cleveland, Baltimore, Texas, Minnesota) - and finish with the big three: Jays, Redsocks and Rays (though some of those games might won't matter.) If we can take 9 of 13 against the tomatoes, 2-3 against the Mets, and go 7-6 against the contenders, we'll play the one game Wild Card at home. That's what we need. (And Boston currently has no lights-out closer, plus, it's facing a team Covid epidemic.) 

There is no divisional race. Our one chance is the Wild Card. And Gerrit Cole must pitch it.