Yanks Bash Twins; Cole Destroys Josh Donaldson. Reasons Why NY 9 Minn 6 on 6-9-21

June 10, 2021 paperbacklou 2021 0

This game was anticipated like a professional boxing match — Gerrit Cole would be facing Josh Donaldson, days after Donaldson had accused Cole (and many other MLB pitchers) of cheating using Spider Tack to put extra spin on the ball.

That led to a horrible interview where Gerrit Cole screwed up royally in answering the simple question by a reporter, if he had ever used Spider Tack. Cole’s hem-hawed answer made him appear very guilty.

And then Donaldson continued the attack in an interview the day of the game, saying it wasn’t just Cole it was many MLB pitchers; but again mentioning Cole.

All of which made this Gerrit Cole’s most important regular-season start in the big leagues, as all eyes would be on him. And on top of it, Cole would be facing Donaldson.

1. Judge Gives Cole the Lead

And so with all the anticipation of how well Cole would pitch without the aid of any sticky stuff, and the mano-a-mano matchup of Cole-Donaldson to boot — Aaron Judge calmly hit a piss missile to left to give Cole a 1-0 lead in the top of the 1st.

2. Cole Takes Care of Business; Wins the Day

And then came Cole vs Donaldson, round 1. Bottom of the 1st inning.

Cole struck Donaldson out swinging.

In the 3rd, with NY up 5-1 by that point, Cole struck out Donaldson swinging again.

In the 5th, with NY up 8-2 by that point, Cole got Donaldson to hit a can-of-corn fly out to Judge in right.

Donaldson ended 0-3 with 2 strikeouts vs Cole (and 0-5 on the day with the 2 strikeouts).

Cole pitched 6 innings, 5 hits, 2 runs, striking out 9, 0 walks. He was dominant and got the win — to go 7-3 2.31 on the year.

Cole took the high road in the post game interview, when asked if there was some satisfaction in retiring Donaldson 3 times with 2 strikeouts. Cole answered, “as a former MVP and big cog in the lineup — 2 hole, important spot for us to try and attack if we want to keep runs off the board, just the satisfaction of executing those pitches in that spot and put our team in a better position to win, it was enough.”

3. Yankee Offense Bashes Minny

The Yankee offense kept pounding out runs for Cole. A Brett Gardner RBI double in the 2nd made it 2-0 NY.

In the 3rd, Judge doubled, Gleyber Torres walked, and Giancarlo Stanton hit an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile to center to make it 5-0 NY.

Giancarlo Stanton hit his SECOND homer in the top of the 5th, with Gleyber Torres aboard to make it 7-1.

That was followed minutes later by Miguel Andujar who hit a bomb to left — his 5th homer in 8 games.

4. Minny Scored Late to Make it Close

Luis Cessa relieved Cole after 94 pitches and 6 innings; Cessa pitched a scoreless 7th and 8th.

With the Yanks up 9-2 in the 9th, you looked away 10 minutes then looked back and the final score was 9-6 NY. The answer was Brooks Kriske — who allowed triple, single, single, homer in the 9th in between 2 outs before getting — Josh Donaldson to fly out to end the game.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401227972

 

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