NEW YORK -- Gerrit Cole was ready from the word “go” on Wednesday afternoon, running out to the mound to kick off Game 1 of the split doubleheader at Yankee Stadium before members of the Pirates’ bullpen had even left the outfield grass.
After coming up on the short end of the stick against the Dodgers in his previous start on Friday -- his stellar outing abruptly ended with a Max Muncy two-run home run -- Cole was dealing early on against the Pirates. The right-hander retired the first 14 batters that he faced, racking up eight strikeouts during that stretch against the club that drafted him No. 1 overall in 2011.
However, Cole’s perfect-game bid ended after third baseman Nick Gonzales hooked a knuckle curve through the left side of the infield for a line-drive single. The next batter, shortstop Jacob Gonzalez, jumped on a down-the-middle changeup, crushing a two-run home run into the right-field seats. In a flash, lightning struck twice for Cole, with another blip interrupting a dominant showing.
Cole then allowed a home run to Gonzales in the seventh inning, a solo shot to give the Pirates a three-run lead. Cole finished the afternoon with a quality start in the Yankees' 5-3 loss in 10 innings, tossing seven frames while notching 11 strikeouts and giving up four hits, walking none. It was the second time that Cole amassed double-digit strikeouts this season, the first time since a 10-strikeout showing on May 27 at Kansas City. It was also his 29th double-digit strikeout game as a member of the Yankees, extending his franchise-record mark.
“I thought Gerrit was really good again,” manager Aaron Boone said. “I thought [he] had everything going, both [his] slider and curveball were a factor. His changeup was good for the most part -- probably not his best one to Gonzalez. … He was efficient, had swing-and-miss going. You’d like that to be the story, of how good he was again.
“If we could have got it going a little more offensively, but [we] just didn’t kick it enough.”
When your ace is going like Cole is, there’s the sense that all an offense needs is a couple of runs for the result to go their way. But too often on Wednesday did potential big innings fall by the wayside, like in the fourth and fifth frames -- in both instances, the Yankees had runners on first and second with less than two outs.
The saving grace for Cole’s start was Ben Rice’s three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh -- his 30th homer of the season, which has him fourth in the Majors -- tying the game at 3 and erasing a tough day in clutch situations. Prior to Rice’s second-deck blast, the Yankees were 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position, having left seven runners on base to that point.
“Any time your starting pitcher looks like he’s in a groove out there, it helps ease everybody up,” Rice said. “With that being said, we’re always hoping to get as many runs as we can.”
In the 10th inning, Fernando Cruz allowed the automatic runner to score on an RBI single from Jared Triolo, then another run to score on a single that Jake Mangum poked into center field. Reliever Kervin Castro came in with the bases loaded and one out to strike out Bryan Reynolds and Esmerlyn Valdez, to keep the score at 5-3.
In the bottom of the inning, the Yankees were unable to claw all the way back against Gregory Soto, setting up a series rubber match in the nightcap of the doubleheader.
Cole leaned heavily on his four-seam fastball against the Pirates, tossing it 51% of the time. But it was a concerted effort to use each of his secondary pitches equally -- he threw the slider and knuckle curve 15% of the time and his changeup 18% of the time -- which kept Pittsburgh’s offense off-balance. He generated 21 swings and misses, his most in a single game since Aug. 10, 2024.
“It was a good step forward, for sure,” Cole said. “All things considered, it’s been really good throughout the whole year. But we’re always trying to fine-tune and just keep getting a little bit better. So we’re staying on that trend.”
The numbers seem to support Cole’s findings. Despite taking two losses over his past three starts, he’s tossed a quality start in each of them, upping the number of punchouts incrementally as well. His manager also agrees that he’s looking more and more comfortable with each start -- “getting back his competitive sea legs,” as Boone put it -- at quite a pivotal time, with fellow ace Max Fried back in the fold.
It's a pairing that Yankees fans have dreamed about for more than two seasons. And if Cole is firing on all cylinders as Fried looks to regain his form, the dog days of summer might seem a bit more bearable as New York tries to hold steady with more reinforcements waiting in the wings.
“I missed [Fried] all [last] year, and we played keep-away so far this year,” Cole said. “It’s a good day. I get to pitch in front of him today. He gets to come out, and he’s worked really hard on his rehab -- so that’s nice it’s finally come to fruition, for sure. A bit too long for both of our tastes.”