The height of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on society came in 2020, and while it drastically changed the most meaningful parts of life, simple distractions like baseball were affected as well. When MLB returned in July, it did so without fans, making ballparks around the country quite eerie. In October especially, it was disheartening not to hear the crowd roar. That was the atmosphere for the start of the temporarily expanded 2020 postseason, when the New York Yankees traveled to face the now-Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field in one of eight Wild Card Series.
Newcomer Gerrit Cole took to the bump against Shane Bieber, and the Yankees came out firing on all cylinders off the eventual Cy Young Award winner.