Neither club had much margin for a letdown. The Yankees are clinging to the AL's top wild-card spot while sitting 2 games back in the East, and the Cubs are locked in a season-long chase of the division-leading Brewers — every rubber match carries a little extra weight in August.
The series had already swung once — Yankees 2-0 on Friday, Cubs 5-2 on Saturday — and Sunday split the difference in the ugliest way possible for Chicago. New York broke through for 2 runs in the 3rd and made it stand, with Cole doing exactly what he's made a career of doing to this lineup.
Chicago's only answer came in the 4th, a single run that never got company, and a defensive error didn't help matters. It was a tidy, quiet ballgame — 9 combined hits, one bad break each way — decided by the pitcher who's owned this matchup for years.
New York heads home having taken 2 of 3 from a legitimate contender, a solid signature series for a wild-card club trying to hold its ground. The Cubs, meanwhile, are left to shake off a series loss and get back to clawing at Milwaukee with the calendar turning to August.