Yankees Start Cole Over Red-Hot Rodon in ALDS Opener Tonight, Schlittler Predicts Friendly Road Crowd

Since sweeping the Boston Red Sox 18-2 in the Wild Card Series and losing Aaron Judge from the roster entirely because of his lingering calf strain, the Yankees now turn to the main event: Game 1 of the American League Division Series tonight at Tropicana Field.

First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET on TBS and HBO Max, according to CBS News. The Rays enter as the better regular-season team by record, finishing 98-64 and winning seven of 13 meetings against New York during the year. The Yankees took three of four in the final week, according to CBS News, and went 93-68 overall, second-best in the AL.

The rotation decision

Manager Aaron Boone picked Gerrit Cole to start Game 1, not Carlos Rodon, even though Rodon arguably pitched better down the stretch. Rodon posted a 2.67 ERA this season and threw eight scoreless innings against the Rays in his final regular-season start, according to Pinstripes Nation. A Head Topics column argued Rodon should have gotten the nod, noting his ERA since returning from injury sits at 1.89 with an MLB-best .146 batting average against, and pointing out the Rays are considerably worse against left-handed pitching than right-handed pitching this season.

The numbers back that up. Tampa Bay posted a .751 OPS against right-handers this year compared with .678 against lefties, according to Pinstripes Nation. Cole is a right-hander. Rodon is a lefty who just shut the Rays down for eight innings.

Boone's explanation was about sequencing, not matchups. "It was a conversation, but an easy one for me once Gerrit didn't pitch in that wild-card [series], was lined up here," Boone told reporters, according to Pinstripes Nation. Because Schlittler and Max Fried handled Boston by themselves, Cole and Rodon both enter October without having thrown a single postseason pitch this year. Cole gets the ball first because his rest schedule lined up that way, not because Boone judged him the better matchup against Tampa Bay's lineup.

Cole has not treated the crowded rotation as a demotion. "It's one of the best rotations that I've ever been a part of," Cole said Friday, according to Pinstripes Nation. "And I've been a part of some really, really good ones." This will be his ninth career Game 1 start across postseason and single-game Wild Card formats, tying CC Sabathia for fifth-most all time, and his first playoff outing since Game 5 of the 2024 World Series. He missed all of 2025 recovering from Tommy John surgery and didn't make his 2026 debut until May 22, finishing the regular season 10-9 with a 3.61 ERA across 127 innings.

Schlittler, who dominated Boston for 6.1 scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts in the Wild Card opener, is set to start Game 2 on Monday. Rodon's spot in the rotation for later in the series has not been formally announced in these sources.

Schlittler on the Tampa Bay crowd

Ahead of the opener, Schlittler took a jab at the Rays' attendance. "I wouldn't say there's really too much of an away crowd here," Schlittler said, according to Newsweek. "I expect there to be a lot of Yankees fans. So in some ways, you are, to an extent, playing at home."

The numbers support his point. Tampa Bay ranked 28th in MLB in average attendance this season at roughly 17,468 fans per game, while the Yankees ranked second at 41,736, according to Newsweek. Schlittler has pitched well against the Rays in person, allowing four earned runs over 13 innings on the road this season for a 2.77 ERA, and just one earned run over three innings in his lone home start against them.

It's a confident thing to say about the league's best regular-season team on their own field, and it will get tested fast. Drew Rasmussen is lined up to start Game 1 for Tampa Bay, according to Sports Illustrated, with Freddy Peralta the likely Game 2 option, though the Rays had not formally confirmed that assignment as of Saturday.

What's unresolved

The Yankees are working with a diminished lineup. Judge remains off the roster entirely, and Sports Illustrated reported Giancarlo Stanton's readiness as a right-handed replacement bat is still an open question. New York hit just .234 as a team during the regular season, 28th in MLB, though it jumped to .382 over the two-game sweep of Boston. Whether that offensive surge carries over against a Tampa Bay pitching staff built to exploit a lineup without its best right-handed hitter is an open question for Game 1 tonight, and for whichever lefty eventually gets a turn against a Rays lineup that has struggled against exactly that look all season.