In a show-down of aces, Tyler Glasnow scintillated — no hitting the Yanks thru 5 innings and finishing with 6 shutout innings, 2 hits, and 9 strikeouts. Yank ‘ace’ Gerrit Cole didn’t — he immediately got Tagged for a 2-run homer in the 1st by former Yank Ji-Man Choi, and another homer in the 2nd by Kevin Kiermaier, and then another run in the 5th before finishing with 103 pitches thrown, 5 innings, 8 hits, 4 runs, 7 strikeouts and leaving Yankee twitter wondering if they’d been had.
“Where is the Gerrit Cole we knew and used to hate?“, asked Justine Elizabeth on Twitter.
It was Cole’s 8th straight start allowing a home run. The longest streak in franchise history to begin a career as a Yankee, according to NY Yankees Stats.
Cole came under Yankee Twitter wrath. But even down 5-0, Yankee Twitter was the place to be. “I will say this Yankees fans on Twitter keep me entertained,” summed up Adele Amato Tamburo.
Down 5-0 Yanks Come Back Late
The Yankees mounted a comeback — down 5-0 after 6 innings, a homer by Gio Urshela in the 7th made it 5-1, and a 2-run homer by Luke Voit — his league leading 13th (more on that in Etcetera below) — in the 8th made it 5-3.
Lucky 13 for @LLVIII40 pic.twitter.com/cHy5f1enAR
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) September 1, 2020
Clint Frazier then singled to put the tying run at the plate in the 8th — and Yankee Twitter crossed their fingers that Gio Urshela might homer again, or that Mike Tauchman might hit his first homer of the season to tie it. But they didn’t.
In the 9th inning, Aaron Hicks reached 1st on a single, but Brett Gardner and DJ LeMahieu made out for the old Ballgame.
Cole Not a Cheat Code Right Now
Cole started out 4-0 but has lost his last 2 and has shown a propensity to give up the long ball, which he did earlier in his career. A year ago, Cole seemed unhittable, the movement on his pitches a cheat code.
Gerrit Cole’s movement is a cheat code pic.twitter.com/BCitNvklKJ
— Kent (@RealKentMurphy) September 25, 2019
Now you have to wonder if it was a ‘cheat code’ or.. was he … cheating?
You have to ask the question — it’s not like he wasn’t pitching for Houston. And Trevor Bauer — who is one of the best in the world at making the ball curve — accused the Houston pitching staff of using some sort of stickem to make the ball curve unnaturally.
And then there is the thing about so many pitchers who went to Houston and got a lot better all of a sudden: Dallas Keuchel (who started his career in Houston and was there when the coaching regime changed), Charlie Morton, Justin Verlander (who seemed on downside of his career then rejuvenated thru the moon), and.. Gerrit Cole.
Cole has been known as a great pitcher since originally being drafted by the Yankees, and had some good years in Pittsburgh, including 19-8 2.60 in 2015 — but his last two years in Pittsburgh weren’t great:
Cole w Pitts:
- 2013 10-7 3.22
- 2014 11-5 3.65
- 2015 19-8 2.60
- 2016 7-10 3.88
- 2017 12-12 4.26
Cole w Hou:
- 2018 15-5 2.88
- 2019 20-5 2.50
It’s too early to tell and hopefully all of the worries above dissipates as the season continues.
On twitter, Thomas gave a counterpoint: “Love Bauer but besides him there hasn’t been anyone saying a word about it from what I’ve seen. Wouldn’t surprise me but the rest of the league is all using something for the most part.”
Cole does look like a good pitcher; just doesn’t seem to have “cheat code” stuff right now. Maybe it’s a matter of getting back into groove.
Etcetera
The Yanks fall to 19-14 and Tampa improves to 25-11, increasing their lead over 2nd place NY to 4.5 games. The Yanks were in first by 2.5 games only two weeks ago.
Luke Voit is tied for the American League lead in homeruns with 13, and leads the American League in Slugging Percentage (.709), and OPS (On base plus Slugging) with a 1.072.
DJ LeMahieu leads the American League in batting at .398.
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