PHOENIX — Gerrit Cole arrived at Chase Field with more riding on his Friday night start than the final line in a September box score. The Yankees had already secured a postseason berth, but their rotation order was still taking shape and Cole had only a small window left to strengthen his place in it.
The Yankees gave him immediate room to work. Cole protected that cushion well enough for the Yankees to cruise to a 9-2 victory. He worked six innings, allowed four hits and two runs, struck out six and did not issue a walk. The Yankees ace threw 62 of 90 pitches for strikes and retired 13 of the final 15 batters he faced.
The Yankees kept adding on and Spencer Jones helped Cole with a sliding catch in the third.
The win moved the Yankees to 89-64, four games behind Tampa Bay in the AL East and 5 1/2 games ahead of Boston for the first AL wild-card spot. With the Wild Card Series scheduled to begin Sept. 29, Cole’s final regular-season work has become less about building volume and more about proving the version the Yankees can trust in October is the one taking the mound now.
The Yankees’ postseason berth is secure, but the club still has to order a deep rotation for a short series, where one shaky start can overturn an entire round. Cole entered Arizona with only one start after this one to influence that decision.
Cole reaches milestone no No. 1 pick has
Only after the Yankees had put the game away did Cole’s night acquire a larger place in MLB history. The victory was the 162nd of his career, moving him past Mike Moore for the most wins by a pitcher selected No. 1 overall in the MLB Draft. Pittsburgh made Cole the first pick in 2011. Moore, taken first by Seattle in 1981, finished with 161 wins. David Price is third among No. 1 overall pitchers with 157.
The milestone came with an October warning still attached. Corbin Carroll drove a two-run homer in the second inning on a four-seam fastball that missed its location. It was the only damage Arizona produced against Cole, but the pitch mattered because of what had happened immediately before Friday.
Cole had surrendered seven home runs over his previous two starts, the most he had ever allowed in a two-start span. Four of those seven came on four-seam fastballs. Add Carroll’s homer, and five of the eight home runs the Yankees ace has allowed over his last three starts have come against the four-seamer.
The four-seam problem has shrunk, not disappeared
Cole has allowed 10 home runs over his last six starts while giving up 18 runs in 34 2/3 innings. He is at 9-9 with a 3.63 ERA, a 1.10 WHIP and 123 strikeouts against 22 walks through 121 1/3 innings and 21 starts.
Before the rough outings against San Diego and the Mets, Cole owned a 3.29 ERA through 18 starts. Over the four starts entering Friday, hitters had gone 16-for-48 against his four-seamer after batting 32-for-173 against it across his first 16 starts.
The Yankees ace generated an 11.6% whiff rate on the four-seamer across the three starts entering Friday, down from 22.8% through his first 17 starts. The Yankees needed evidence that the pitch could again survive against postseason-caliber hitters.
Boone keeps Cole in the Yankees’ October plan
Aaron Boone had already signaled that two bad starts were not going to erase Cole from the Yankees’ postseason rotation. After the Yankees’ loss to the Mets, Boone made his expectation clear.
“I expect him to be right next time,” Boone said.
Friday did not change Boone’s larger October plan. Asked whether Cole should expect to start if the Yankees land in the Wild Card Series, the manager again backed him.
“I would expect Gerrit Cole to start, yes,” Boone said.
The larger issue is what version of Cole’s fastball will accompany him. YES Network analyst David Cone had pointed to the secondary pitches, saying hitters had become comfortable waiting for the heater.
“They’re not respecting your secondary stuff, they’re sitting on your fastball,” Cone said.
One more start carries an October-sized test
Cole is lined up for one more regular-season start, at home against the Rays next week. That outing can give the Yankees a cleaner read before they arrange their pitching staff for a possible best-of-three Wild Card Series.
Friday was meaningful progress. The Yankees ace attacked the strike zone, did not walk a batter and controlled Arizona after Carroll’s second-inning swing. The Yankees also kept his workload to 90 pitches.
But the home-run question followed him out of Chase Field. Cole made MLB history and restored some confidence in the same night. The four-seam fastball still has one final September test before the Yankees decide how much they can lean on it in October.
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
