In anticipation of the highly anticipated clash between the New York Yankees and the New York Mets, Gerrit Cole openly expressed his excitement about facing the Mets. Cole will take the mound Tuesday at Citi Field as the Yankees and Mets begin their first Subway Series matchup of the season.
Tuesday’s game was initially expected to be a showdown between Gerrit Cole and his former rotation mate, Luis Severino. However, the Mets bumped Luis Severino up to start Sunday’s win over the Cubs, in which he lowered his ERA to 3.29. Cole, who valued Severino’s presence in the Yankees’ clubhouse despite his injury struggles, was glad to see his former teammate healthy and performing well.
“I just want the best for Luis,” Cole said. “It’s good to see him back pitching. It’s a lot of hard work put in, and it’s nice to see it pay off for guys.”
Subway series
Gerrit Cole also took the opportunity to reflect on how electrifying the atmosphere will be during the Subway Series. He expressed his anticipation for the environment to be just as intense and thrilling as in the past.
“The last one was a very lively environment, so I’m anticipating probably the same,” said Cole, referring to his previous outing against the Mets in Queens last season. As the reigning AL Cy Young winner, Cole thrives on competition. However, his return has been challenging due to elbow nerve inflammation and edema that kept him out for the first two and a half months of the season.
The Yankees, aware of the schedule, decided to bring Gerrit Cole back even though he wasn’t fully built up. Consequently, Cole must temper his expectations as he doesn’t yet have a full allotment of pitches at his disposal. “I think I’m just trying to still build it out,” Cole said. “I’m kind of in the thick of it. Just keep getting built up. I’m not trying to do a whole lot different, really. I’ll obviously try to select pitches I think are going to be successful and try to get competitive outs and as many as I can. But it’s not all the way built up, so it’s hard to have any expectations.”
Entering Tuesday’s game, the Yankees had lost seven of their last 10 games and three straight series. They could greatly benefit from a strong outing by Gerrit Cole, though he will still be limited in how long he can pitch. Cole built up to 70 pitches in his final rehab start, but the Yankees scaled it back to 65 pitches in his return against the Orioles. He finished with 62 pitches in that game, accounting for the adrenaline that comes with pitching in the majors. Against the Mets, Cole should be in line for approximately 75 pitches.
Gerrit Cole in the early days
In his season debut against the Orioles, Gerrit Cole grew stronger as the game progressed, allowing two runs across four-plus innings. He struck out five batters in a seven-batter stretch, getting through the fourth inning before allowing a leadoff single in the fifth, which ended his day. He used all five of his pitches, with his four-seam fastball averaging 95 mph—slightly down from 96.7 mph last season, though he topped out at 97.5 mph. Cole was pleased with his command in his first start back.
“It’s gonna be a little back and forth in that regard—building up and not having expectations, but getting pitches into areas that we want just to give us a good chance to prevent runs,” he said.
This Subway Series will mark Cole’s third time pitching in it. The Mets roughed him up in 2021 at Yankee Stadium before he tossed six innings of one-run ball against them last season at Citi Field.
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
Luis Severino, just example of a Yankee player the Yankees could never get healthy, but he goes elsewhere, and poof! I Stanton healthy. But the real takeaway is that the Yankees still keep the same medical personnel in place since at least 2020.
Yanks revamped the Medical Staff a few seasons back. Come into the present.
Players all over the league are going down with injuries, not just the Yankees.
Alan even on PSA you are always a Doom and Gloom Guy.