 The Probable starters for Game 3 of the ALCS are brought to you by your local Ford stores. For the Astros they have not officially announced who they will start but it'll be a righty either Lance McCulloch Jr. or Christian Javier. As for the Yankees we know it'll be Garrett Cole. He won two games for him in the division series and a short time ago the media caught up with him to talk about his start in game three. Just how do you feel about taking the ball at home with the you know kind of a big game now you guys are down? Oh do. Yeah it's always great pleasure to pitch at home in front of our fans and I'm sure there'll be a bunch of pageantry and everything so it should be should be a nice night. With the historic implication that if you guys don't win game three you probably will not win this series. Do you carry implication into a game like that as encouragement trying to find some fuel from it or do you want to ignore it at a hundred percent? You asked me a similar question last series and just like the answer is regardless if it's two to zero or if it's one to one or it's O2 it just it can't affect the way I go about my business. I mean like we all have a job to do we play each and every game in and of itself play each and every pitch in within each and every game until there's no more pitches to play win or lose so you know and I alluded to it earlier like the club that's opposing us certainly any club demands as as much focus as you possibly can put into trying to execute your game plan and your pitches in order to be successful so the rest of the stuff is is irrelevant. Well obviously the Yankees don't want to be down O2 but they feel good with Cole and Nestor Cortez lined up for the next two starts and you've talked a lot about Cole again he's won two games but it's the way he's won them the way he's pitched not only the physical side but the mental side. I love everything about where he is right now the way he handles the media the way he's been handling himself out on the mound. I expect him to go out there and do what he's done in the postseason for the Yankees and have a quality performance. My biggest concern is the offensive side of the ball and if McCullers is pitching on Saturday afternoon at five o'clock he spins the baseball as good as any right hander in the league so the Yankees got to figure out a way offensively. Cole knows it's a must win situation he does not have to be reminded of that and I think you're right John I think the Yankees are very comfortable with having Cole on the mound especially the way he pitched in this postseason. He's a primary reason they won the division series over the Guardians with the way that he pitched and I expect him to go out and do the same thing against his former team but along the way the Yankee offense does need to do its job. This is a must win you can't go down three nothing but if you are able to get game three with Cortez looming in game four suddenly the momentum starts to shift in your direction. Yeah there's a lot of things to unpack here you know the Yankees are not down 2-0 because of their pitching their pitching has been fine and the astronauts don't blow anybody out they won all five games in the postseason one run two run difference one run two runs one run they're not blowing anybody out so the pitching has been fine they've got to get their offense straightened out and maybe get some confidence in that way but you go go to this the last the last team to win the first two games at home in an ALCS and lose with the 2004 Yankee so it doesn't happen that often Yankees have to go into New York and hold serve they have to win the three games at Yankee Stadium and take their chance winning one game in Atlanta I wouldn't pack this season in by any stretch of the imagination they have not played so poorly that you don't think they have a chance but they've got to hit better