Gerrit Cole’s nearly flawless streak to begin this season ended Wednesday afternoon during the Yankees’ 4-2 victory over the Phillies. But the only run to score off him in 13 innings so far probably deserves an asterisk. That’s how dominant the Yankees’ ace has been.
Cole didn’t even get a chance to throw a final pitch. His day ended on a clock violation, which resulted in a walk to the Phillies’ Nick Castellanos, who later scored on Jake Cave’s sacrifice fly off reliever Jonathan Loaisiga.
That’s what it takes to dent Cole these days. A technicality. For a guy whose pinstriped tenure had been a bit too vulnerable to teeing up runs on a swing and jog, Cole is being especially stingy through his first two starts. He’s struck out 19 and allowed only that new-rule-impacted run through 12 1/3 innings, stabilizing a Yankees rotation that lost three starters before Opening Day.
Asked to describe what he’s been seeing from Cole to this point, manager Aaron Boone paused for a moment. To him, it must have seemed like a rhetorical question.
“Well, he’s Gerrit Cole,” Boone said. “He walks out there with a lot of equipment. But I feel like he’s been in a good spot since Day One of spring training and he’s carried it right into the season.”
With a first-pitch temp of 48 degrees, spitting rain and chilly wind, this was not a fun day to be holding a bat, either against Cole or Phillies ace Aaron Nola. But once the Yankees nicked Nola for a 1-0 lead in the first inning, on the first of Gleyber Torres’ pair of RBI singles, Cole fiercely protected that narrow edge against the defending NL champs.
The Phillies put up minor threats on Bryson Stott’s two-out double in the second inning along with a pair of walks in the fifth, but Cole slammed the door each time. And in the sixth inning, with his pitch count nearing the limit, that’s where Cole delivered a statement against the top of the order.
Cole gunned a 98.8-mph four-seamer past…
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