Yankees ace pitcher Gerrit Cole got off to another strong start this year on Thursday against the Rangers. In his first start at Globe Life Field, since shattering the Yankees’ single-season strikeout mark of 257 in the same game in which Aaron Judge hit his historic home run, Gerrit Cole allowed two runs over 6 2/3 innings while striking out eight batters.
With an increased ERA of 1.11, Gerrit Cole’s record currently stands at 5-0. The Rangers only threatened when they had runners on first and second and no one out in the sixth inning. The right-hander whiffed on Adolis Garcia and induced a force out from Jonah Heim on the ground. It would have been a double play if Gerrit Cole had caught the throw at first. Then, Ezequiel Duran knocked in a run with an infield single.
Michael King recorded his first save of the year by recording the final seven outs.
Yankees ride Gerrit Cole’s dominant outing
Before the Rangers scored in the sixth on a fielder’s choice grounder by Jonah Heim, the Yankees ace had allowed no runs over the previous 25 2/3 innings. Gerrit Cole dropped the ball while covering first base, preventing a potential double play that would have ended the inning. Then, Ezequiel Duran drove in a run with an infield single.
“I need to make that play. I’m capable of making that play,” Cole said. “Obviously was pretty tough, but I felt really good about continuing to make our pitches and pitching into the type of contact that we we wanted to get, and eventually went our way and we got out of there with the lead.”
Texas’ Andrew Heaney (2-2) threw six shutout innings, allowing the Yankees only one run on six hits and two walks. Texas is currently tied for first place in the AL West with Houston after dropping four straight games.
Gerrit Cole (5-0) now leads the American League in strikeouts with 44, one more than the Rangers’ top pitcher, Jacob deGrom. He allowed two runs in six and a third innings, raising his earned run average from 0.79 to 1.11.
His perfect game ended on Thursday when he botched a potential double play by dropping the relay and allowing the opening run of the game to be scored by the Rangers. Even though Gerrit Cole had one bad inning, he was able to escape with the lead intact, and the Yankees won 4-2 while he was on the mound, maintaining their perfect record.
Gerrit Cole had to pitch with the bases loaded and no outs in the sixth inning after the first two Rangers batters hit singles up the middle and the third walked. The rest of the inning consisted of softly hit, nicely placed ground balls. Gerrit Cole allowed only two runs, and both were reached on infield hits (one on a chopper to third that almost turned into a double play) and the other on a fielder’s choice ground ball.
“The sixth inning was tough — [we were] really executing pretty much every pitch that we wanted to, and obviously, the Rangers are tough, a first-place team, and being able to put the ball in play was advantageous for them,” Cole said. “They found some holes. It was a grind.”
Jonah Heim’s grounder to first base with one out and the bases loaded presented a golden opportunity for the Yankees to turn a challenging 3-6-1 double play and finish another scoreless inning for Gerrit Cole. He gloved Anthony Volpe’s throw but it dropped, as he tried to take a step toward first base at the same moment. That allowed one run to cross the plate, and later another scored on a grounder by Ezequiel Duran into the infield.
Gerrit Cole was confident
When asked if he could turn a double play, Gerrit Cole answered, “I need to make that play, I’m capable of making that play. Obviously, it was pretty tough. But I felt really good about continuing to make our pitches and pitching into the type of contact that we wanted to get, and eventually it went our way, and we got out of there with the lead.”
Gerrit Cole struck out the Rangers’ cleanup hitter Adolis Garca with the bases loaded and no outs, preventing a potential disaster. Garca fouled off Cole’s low changeup on the first delivery. The Yankees starter delivered some high heat for his second and third strikes, but Garca was able to foul them off.
“The pitches are piling up [and] obviously I’m getting gassed, so I was stoked that we were able to continue to make pitches and remain unpredictable. … It’s really tough to stay locked in, but it’s a lot easier when [catcher Jose Trevino] is picking the pitches.”
Gerrit Cole had an impressive 8 K% (strikeout%). In 40 and a third innings, he has now struck out 44. He has improved to 5-0 and has an ERA of 1.11. He has early season numbers that are Cy Young Award caliber. When he has started this season, the Yankees are undefeated. Opponents are making attacks against you. Gerrit Cole has earned $169 so far this year.
“It comes from my teammates, it comes from our preparation, and it comes from just being in a good spot to execute a lot of pitches,” Cole said. “We’ve just played good baseball more often than not, and it’s something you feed off of as a pitcher.”
Three home runs by the Yankees
The Yankees, who had been struggling offensively, started off Tuesday night’s game in Minnesota with five hits in their first ten at-bats. All singles, but only one run scored in the first two innings despite all the hits.
Their manager Aaron Boone claimed that Tuesday was different since they “hit some balls on the screws.” Yet again, they were unable to “break through with that big one – that gapper that scores a couple or hits one in the seats.”
“When you kinda back off and strip the emotion, watching tonight was, I felt like a different offensive game, a different at-bat quality than what we saw last night. So in some ways, you try and take a little gain in that, but the reality is we’re in a stretch right now where we haven’t scored enough runs and that’s gotta change.”
Thursday was the best offensive day of the season for the Yankees. In the third inning, the Yankees took the lead with two home runs off lefty Andrew Heaney.
The first was a fair fly ball hit down the right-field line by DJ LeMahieu, who was batting against the pitcher. After that, Gleyber Torres blasted a home run 443 feet to the outfield center, giving his team a 2-0 lead.
The Yankees began their comeback by loading the bases with one out before Anthony Volpe came up to bat. On the first pitch he saw, Volpe hit a line drive to left field, scoring a run.
After a night in which much of the attention was focused on Aaron Judge’s injury, former Ranger Jose Trevino added another home run in the top of the ninth inning.
“I don’t like taking our guy out, but we’ll see,” Boone said. “We’ll see what we have here [Friday] and the next couple days. … [Injuries are] part of it. Not allowed to be upset. Nobody waits for us. We got a tough league and we gotta keep going.”
