Boone: Should've pulled Cole before Muncy's go-ahead HR
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- Aaron Boone stuck with Gerrit Cole against Max Muncy in the 7th inning of Friday's 2-1 loss to the Dodgers, passing on left-hander Brent Headrick, whom the manager had warming in the bullpen.
- Muncy crushed a go-ahead two-run homer into the second deck in right field on a hung slider after Cole had fallen behind 0-2 in the count, putting Los Angeles ahead for good.
- Cole delivered a vintage performance with 8 strikeouts, 1 walk, and a season-high 103 pitches over 6 innings in his 10th start back from Tommy John surgery, his first outing against the Dodgers since the 2024 World Series.
- Roki Sasaki outdueled Cole, allowing one unearned run on 5 hits with 5 strikeouts over 5⅔ innings using a triple-digit fastball and sharp splitter against a Yankees lineup missing Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton.
- Boane acknowledged the mistake postgame: 'Obviously, in hindsight, I probably should've grabbed him there' and 'that falls on me.'
- The Yankees went down in order in the ninth against Tanner Scott, wasting a Ben Rice double in the 8th in which Trent Grisham was thrown out at home by Mookie Betts on a close send by third-base coach Luis Rojas.
Why it matters: Playing without Judge and Stanton already squeezes New York's offensive margin, making in-game bullpen decisions more decisive—Boone's choice to honor Cole's confidence rather than deploy his top reliever in a one-run game directly produced the two runs that decided the outcome, a lesson he owned publicly but couldn't reverse.
