Ryan: On night where Yankees' golden idol in Gerrit Cole rusts, Nathan Eovaldi shines

When Nathan Eovaldi dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s on a four-year, $68-million contract back in December 2018, you’d be hard-pressed to find Red Sox fans united in protest.

After all, the sterling optics of retaining Eovaldi just weeks after his postseason heroics during Boston’s World Series run made it one of the easiest layups of Dave Dombrowski’s reign in the Sox front office. 

But even with the good tidings that came with keeping a playoff stud like Eovaldi in the fold for another potential postseason push in 2019 and beyond (wishful thinking, in hindsight), there was still considerable risk that came with paying out close to $70 million in cash to the veteran righty. 

Prior to that contract, the most lucrative deal that Eovaldi signed was a one-year, $5.6-million agreement with the New York Yankees. 

New York’s hesitancy to hand Eovaldi term throughout his tenure in the Bronx came as no surprise, considering the frequent treks he made over the years to elbow specialists, clinics and other facilities that make teams shudder when the time comes to open their wallets. 

But despite having two Tommy John surgeries on his ledger by the time Boston locked him into his new contract, Boston believed that financial commitment was a risk worth taking if Eovaldi could reward his team with more playoff success in the coming years. 

Such hopes flickered and waned in the early going. In the first year of his new deal, Eovaldi spent three months on the shelf — elbow trouble once again the culprit. He closed out the 2019 campaign with an ERA just under 6.00 and just 67.2 innings logged. 

The 2020 season was a step in the right direction for Eovaldi’s individual performance on the mound, even if the collective play of the team behind him was … well, you know the story by now. 

It hasn’t exactly been an easy road for Eovaldi — both in his tenure in Boston and through a wider lens, his entire pro career. 

But for all that risk and questions surrounding his viability as a premier starter and the validity of his lofty paycheck, Eovaldi sure made good on Boston’s faith in him on a crisp fall evening Tuesday at Fenway Park. 

The competitor he is, Eovaldi objected when Alex Cora strode out from the dugout in the sixth inning to pull him after 71 pitches, but the veteran’s job was done — putting Boston in prime position to knock out the team whose faith in the start wouldn’t extend beyond one year in the Yankees. 

The stat line? 5.1 innings pitched. Four hits allowed. Just one earned run. Zero walks. Eight Ks. And a lead handed over the bullpen in a do-or-die Wild Card bout against Boston’s most-hated rival. 

As Eovaldi walked off the hill to a chorus of cheers from the Fenway Faithful, the consensus was clear. To Red Sox fans, the deal was worth every penny. 

Fair to say, Yankees fans aren’t filled with the same validation in regards to the man that Aaron Boone entrusted in the same role.

In some respects, Eovaldi and Yanks ace Gerrit Cole are similar.

• Both can uncork heaters that flirt with (and regularly exceed) 100 miles per hour.

• Both received ovations from the Fenway crowd for their respective outings, although one reception clearly had a different intent.

Uh, what else. ... 

• Well, both are righties.

Hmmmm. 

*Checks notes*

Well, alright, maybe that’s where the comparisons end. 

Because for as much as Eovaldi’s annual payout might be considered lofty given the questions with his health, Cole’s fiscal situation is in a completely different stratosphere — as are the expectations.

Eovaldi’s salary equates to $17 million a year, but Cole commands $19 million MORE on an annual basis — with the Yanks once again resetting the market value for starting pitching back in December 2019 when they handed the fireballer a nine-year, $324 million contract. 

It was arguably the least surprising move of the offseason given the Yanks’ deep pockets, with the franchise looking to simply solve a potential hole in its rotation by tossing buckets of cash at it. 

But as we’ve seen in the past — and the Red Sox can certainly attest to it  — using mega-deals as the foundations of a franchise’s success often puts you on uneven ground. 

The Yankees paid Cole $36 million this season, and the 31-year-old ace couldn’t even land 30 strikes with New York’s season on the line Tuesday. 

By the time Boone yanked Cole from the contest, he had only recorded six outs and relinquished three runs — a byproduct of two Ruthian blasts from Xander Bogaerts and Kyle Schwarber. 

“We knocked out their ace," Bogaerts said of Cole. "That’s the best pitcher they have got. That’s the guy they gave all that money to. He’s the ace.”

Of course, in a game as unforgiving and unpredictable as baseball, singling out just one game to sum up a player’s entire season is a tough look. 

But Cole’s inability to deliver despite his sizable contract was not an outlier — especially against the Yankees’ primary antagonist in the Sox. 

In 18 innings at Fenway Park, Cole served up seven (7!) home runs. Over the span of five total starts against Boston, Cole was on the hook for 14 earned runs over 24 innings — good for a 5.63 ERA. 

"Sick to my stomach," Cole remarked postgame. "This is the worst feeling in the world."

By comparison, Eovaldi (who we’ll remind you once again is making $19 million LESS than Cole this season) is now 2-1 with a 1.63 ERA and a 0.80 WHIP in seven career playoff outings. Including the regular season, Boston has now won eight of Eovaldi’s last nine starts — including 9 of his last 11 outings. 

"He's so calm," Cora said of his starters. "When he shows up to the ballpark, he's the same guy when he pitches and when he doesn't. He was waiting for this one. They did an amazing job on Friday. They took some pitches away, they hunted pitches in certain spots and they did damage. Like I said, we learned a lot from that.

He's just a great person. He's not only a great pitcher but he's a great person. He cares about everybody; the way he goes about it in the training room, in the weight room, when he doesn't pitch, he's a plus. We had the right guy on the mound today."

For as much as Eovaldi's postseason heroics were born out of his marathon performance in Game 3 of the 2018 World Series, this one felt even sweeter for the veteran starter.

"It definitely feels better to be on the winning side of it," Eovaldi said. "Game 3 obviously was a very special moment, and at the time it was very frustrating for me because we lost, and I felt like I let the team down. ... Coming into tonight, I felt like I was able to cherish the moment a little bit better, kind of just go out there and compete and have fun."

In his season-ending presser, Boone bemoaned the fact that the Yankees' standing at the top of MLB (a curious declaration, considering they haven't secured a World Series title since 2009) isn't quite as exclusive as it used to be. 

“The league has closed the gap on us,” he said. “We’ve got to get better. We’ve got to get better in every aspect. It’s not just the Red Sox and the Astros now. Look at our division.”

Indeed, look no further than the Red Sox — who trotted out a starter waking close to $20 million less than New York's appointed Golden Idol, and walked away with the most valuable commodity of all.

More time allotted on their season — a luxury that slipped through the Yankees' grasp with their $324-million man on the mound.