Cole vs. Rasmussen: The Yankees' Sweep Buys Them Their Ace for Game 1 in Tampa

Sweeping Boston did more than send the Red Sox home. It saved Gerrit Cole, who was scheduled to pitch Game 3 on Thursday, for the start of the American League Division Series.

Cole will face Drew Rasmussen and the Rays in Game 1 on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. ET in St. Petersburg, on TBS and truTV.

Cole's comeback year

The 36-year-old missed all of 2025 after Tommy John surgery. He came back to make 22 starts, going 10-9 with a 3.61 ERA. It wasn't the Cole of his Cy Young peak, but it gave the Yankees a six-time All-Star with plenty of October experience at the front of the rotation.

Rasmussen's problem for New York

Rasmussen went 16-5 with a 2.67 ERA and made his second straight All-Star team. Against the Yankees specifically, he's been even better: 5-2 with a 1.81 ERA in 11 career appearances, 10 of them starts, with 70 strikeouts in 59⅔ innings.

His path here was long. The 31-year-old had two surgeries on his elbow ligament in college, then an internal brace procedure in July 2023 that cost him more than a year.

Back home at the Trop

Tampa Bay won 98 games, the most in the American League, which earned a bye and home field at a renovated Tropicana Field. That's no small detail. Hurricane Milton damaged the stadium in October 2024, and the Rays spent 2025 playing across the bay at Steinbrenner Field, the Yankees' spring training park.

The Rays haven't won a playoff series since 2020, when they beat the Yankees 3-2 in the Division Series on their way to the franchise's second pennant before losing the World Series to the Dodgers.

You can watch every game of the series live on TVRivo.