With the Yankees looking to end a four-game losing streak on Tuesday, Gerrit Cole effectively played the part of stopper against the Mariners.
With the ace leaning heavily on his fastball, slider and cutter, Cole held Seattle to just a run in a 3-1 Yankees win. The right-hander totaled four hits, one walk, eight strikeouts and 105 pitches.
The performance helped the Yankees “stop the bleeding,” as Aaron Boone put it.
“Commanded the baseball how he wanted to,” the manager said. “Really avoided trouble pretty much the whole night and was just in a good rhythm and command. But I thought it was fastball, cutter, slider that were really strong for him.”
The Yankees are now 7-0 this season when Cole pitches after a loss, but he didn’t want to take too much credit for that.
“I think it just works out that way,” the pitcher modestly said. “We have to play well, too, when I pitch to win.
Cole was more fired up in the seventh inning, when he added a sailing fastball, a finger wave and a demonstrative shoulder shrug during and after an at-bat against Mariners second baseman Jose Caballero. Cole appeared annoyed with some extracurriculars Caballero offered during the at-bat, and Mariners skipper Scott Servais took issue with a staring Cole afterward.
“Sometimes a high fastball can be a really effective pitch,” Cole said, and he replied in a similar manner when asked if the seemingly wild pitch had been deliberate. “So gotta change eye levels.”
Cole added that he mockingly wagged his finger at Servais, not Caballero, because the manager made the same genuine gesture to Cole while relaying “choice words.”
“That’s the first time an opposing manager’s ever wagged their finger at me,” Cole said.
The Yankees offense, meanwhile, somewhat shrugged off its recent woes and scored three runs against New York native George Kirby, who blanked the Bombers for eight innings in Seattle on May 31.
Kirby wasn’t awful on Tuesday, as he went seven innings while allowing eight hits, zero walks and four strikeouts over 95 pitches. But his defense didn’t help him in the first inning, when Anthony Rizzo was credited for an RBI double on a catchable ball that hit off the wall.
Rizzo, who has been scuffling, later hit another double as part of a three-hit night. Yankees hitting coach Dillon Lawson recently said Rizzo had been fighting a timing issue, but the first baseman seemed happy with his swing on Tuesday.
“If it gets me three hits and hits the ball hard every game, it’s exactly where I want it to be,” Rizzo said. “So mechanically, it’s just really putting yourself, for me, in the best position to hit when a pitcher releases the ball.”
The biggest blast off Kirby came in the second inning, when Billy McKinney crushed a two-run homer to right field. The 432-foot bomb was McKinney’s second of the year, and the non-roster invitee now has a .289 average and .887 OPS over 11 games since the Yankees promoted him from Triple-A.
“He’s been really steady,” Boone said. “He’s done a great job in the outfield for us and I just feel like really, every game, he’s had quality at-bats whether he’s gotten to hit or not. He’s putting together really good at bats.”
Harrison Bader picked up a hit and a stolen base in his first game back from the injured list. He scored on McKinney’s home run.
The Mariners’ lone run off Cole came on a double from Jarred Kelenic in the sixth inning.
After doing just enough in their rematch against Kirby, the Yankees’ struggling offense gets to face Luis Castillo on Wednesday. The righty is enjoying another strong season despite a 4-5 record, as he owns a 2.73 ERA and 98 strikeouts over 82.1 innings.
The Yankees, meanwhile, will turn to rookie right-hander Jhony Brito. The 25-year-old has split his season between the majors and the minors and owns a 5.58 ERA over 40.1 innings at the highest level. Brito has been even worse in the minors, recording a 7.08 ERA over 20.1 innings.
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