- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 1,190,818
- Reaction score
- 59
Heading into Monday's game against the Tigers, Yankees ace Gerrit Cole had made five solid starts since returning on May 22 and shown flashes of his former self pre Tommy John surgery.
But things didn't go as planned in Detroit.
Cole battled for 4.1 innings and allowed five runs on nine hits (the most he's given up this year) with five strikeouts and a walk. He avoided trouble after leadoff hits in the first and second innings, but a leadoff triple in the third inning caught up to him as the Tigers scored three runs in the frame. The righty gave up another run in the fourth before allowing a solo homer in the fifth inning, eventually ending his night.
"I sure made a handful of mistakes there," Cole said after the 5-3 loss. "A couple of them, the two-out two-run RBI to [Colt] Keith, the homer to [Riley] Greene, the double to [Spencer] Torkelson kind of put extra pressure on us from those mistakes. They hit a good amount of good pitches, but we just weren't able to respond with the type of quality pitches to get out of those situations from the extra pressure they put on us."
One of the issues Monday was that Cole gave up a hit to the Tigers leadoff man in all five innings he pitched, including Riley's fifth-inning home run. He said that while it "puts pressure" on him, the Yanks weren't able to overcome the adversity.
"Like I said, I certainly made some mistakes," Cole said. "The opposition is going to put pressure on you sometimes. The reality is, it's not the try-hard league, it's the get-it-done league, and we just didn't get it done tonight."
He added: "They got nine hits, they just put a ton of pressure on us and played overall just slightly better baseball. That's just the way it broke tonight."
Manager Aaron Boone thought Cole's stuff looked "alright" and credited the Tigers for making him work with consistent contact throughout the game.
"I thought stuff-wise was alright and he had some swing-and-miss going, had some strikeouts, they didn't really miss, though," Boone said. "When he missed or was a little off with the fastball, they were able to square it up. So, probably there were some times where he was trying to go to a location and maybe pulled it or missed a little more in the middle or missed in when he was going away a handful of times and they capitalized on that. Probably had some opportunities.
"I thought he had a good slider going, probably some chances in some situations where he didn't get that down enough to get some swing-and-miss or weak contact. But overall, stuff-wise, I thought alright. They pressured him with a lot of good at-bats. Even early, first couple of innings, held them off the scoreboard. They were able to get the leadoff batter on and pressure him and make him work real hard. They put some good swings on some pitches where they got a little bit in the heart and they got a chance."
With the box scoring looking the way it did, Cole was asked if his performance could be attributed to pitching post-Tommy John surgery, which he immediately disagreed with.
"I don't think it has anything to do with that," Cole said. "The reality is, pitches over the heart of the plate, there's three. There's three over the heart of the plate. Now pretty critical about some of the other stuff... I think just when it's all set and done, the real mistake that I jumped way ahead and just goosed a fastball to Keith there to cash the other two in. That would've been great to convert that out and keep that at a one."
And Boone agreed that Monday's outing had nothing to do with Cole's injury, saying the right-hander has performed to the level he expects.
"I think overall he's pitching very much in line with who Gerrit Cole's been throughout his career," Boone said. "I think he looks good, the stuff's there. It always comes down to how well you execute time in and time out. For the most part, he's been very good. They took advantage of some pitches that probably leaked into the heart of the plate on him today and put up some points on him."
Continue reading...
But things didn't go as planned in Detroit.
Cole battled for 4.1 innings and allowed five runs on nine hits (the most he's given up this year) with five strikeouts and a walk. He avoided trouble after leadoff hits in the first and second innings, but a leadoff triple in the third inning caught up to him as the Tigers scored three runs in the frame. The righty gave up another run in the fourth before allowing a solo homer in the fifth inning, eventually ending his night.
"I sure made a handful of mistakes there," Cole said after the 5-3 loss. "A couple of them, the two-out two-run RBI to [Colt] Keith, the homer to [Riley] Greene, the double to [Spencer] Torkelson kind of put extra pressure on us from those mistakes. They hit a good amount of good pitches, but we just weren't able to respond with the type of quality pitches to get out of those situations from the extra pressure they put on us."
One of the issues Monday was that Cole gave up a hit to the Tigers leadoff man in all five innings he pitched, including Riley's fifth-inning home run. He said that while it "puts pressure" on him, the Yanks weren't able to overcome the adversity.
"Like I said, I certainly made some mistakes," Cole said. "The opposition is going to put pressure on you sometimes. The reality is, it's not the try-hard league, it's the get-it-done league, and we just didn't get it done tonight."
He added: "They got nine hits, they just put a ton of pressure on us and played overall just slightly better baseball. That's just the way it broke tonight."
Manager Aaron Boone thought Cole's stuff looked "alright" and credited the Tigers for making him work with consistent contact throughout the game.
"I thought stuff-wise was alright and he had some swing-and-miss going, had some strikeouts, they didn't really miss, though," Boone said. "When he missed or was a little off with the fastball, they were able to square it up. So, probably there were some times where he was trying to go to a location and maybe pulled it or missed a little more in the middle or missed in when he was going away a handful of times and they capitalized on that. Probably had some opportunities.
"I thought he had a good slider going, probably some chances in some situations where he didn't get that down enough to get some swing-and-miss or weak contact. But overall, stuff-wise, I thought alright. They pressured him with a lot of good at-bats. Even early, first couple of innings, held them off the scoreboard. They were able to get the leadoff batter on and pressure him and make him work real hard. They put some good swings on some pitches where they got a little bit in the heart and they got a chance."
With the box scoring looking the way it did, Cole was asked if his performance could be attributed to pitching post-Tommy John surgery, which he immediately disagreed with.
"I don't think it has anything to do with that," Cole said. "The reality is, pitches over the heart of the plate, there's three. There's three over the heart of the plate. Now pretty critical about some of the other stuff... I think just when it's all set and done, the real mistake that I jumped way ahead and just goosed a fastball to Keith there to cash the other two in. That would've been great to convert that out and keep that at a one."
And Boone agreed that Monday's outing had nothing to do with Cole's injury, saying the right-hander has performed to the level he expects.
"I think overall he's pitching very much in line with who Gerrit Cole's been throughout his career," Boone said. "I think he looks good, the stuff's there. It always comes down to how well you execute time in and time out. For the most part, he's been very good. They took advantage of some pitches that probably leaked into the heart of the plate on him today and put up some points on him."
Continue reading...
