The Yankees ace is on a roll.
On Friday night in the Bronx, Gerrit Cole got off to another great start in the shortened season, leading the Yankees to a 6-1 victory over the Rays in the first of a four-game series.
“Everything went well,” he said. “I wish I’d been a little more efficient getting the outs because the counts were deep at times after the third inning, but overall I was pretty good tonight.”
Cole pitched six innings, holding the Rays to just one run and striking out a season-high eight batters.
“Coming out of the All-Star break, our ace allowed just one run in six innings, that’s a great result for us,” manager Aaron Boone said.
“I thought he played great in Baltimore, but he was even better tonight.”
It was the second straight good outing for the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, who is off to his best start since returning from the disabled list last Friday at Baltimore, throwing 106 pitches over a season-high six innings and allowing just one run.
He boasts an impressive 1.50 ERA over his past two starts.
“I thought his slider was really good, and the cutter has become a good, reliable pitch for him the last two years, especially late last season and into this season,” Boone said. “I thought the four-seam was good, and he mixed in a little bit of a changeup in there, too.”
Since returning from an elbow injury, Cole has posted a 4.60 ERA while striking out 34 batters in 29 innings pitched.
Despite a pitch clock violation in the second inning (his final warm-up pitch came with just under 20 seconds left in the game), he remained calm throughout his time on the mound.
“To be honest, I told him [home plate umpire Quinn Wolcott] “I didn’t have a chance to speak,” Cole said of the call. “I didn’t agree with it and I didn’t lose my cool.”
“I’m grateful he had me in the game.”
As the Yankees look to reclaim the lead in the American League East, they will need their ace pitcher to step up and help their relief pitchers in the second half of the season to make a comeback.
“We’ve got a lot of baseball ahead of us,” Cole said. “It’s always a good feeling to get off to a good start, so we wanted to go out there and get ourselves set.”
