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New York Yankees Ace Does Something Not Seen in Nearly 50 Years of Team History

The New York Yankees beat the Oakland Athletics in extra-innings on Friday night as Gerrit Cole accomplished something extremely rare in team history.

Brady Farkas

New York Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole (45) pitches against the Cleveland Guardians during the first inning at Yankee Stadium in 2024.
New York Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole (45) pitches against the Cleveland Guardians during the first inning at Yankee Stadium in 2024. / John Jones-Imagn Images
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The New York Yankees beat the Oakland Athletics 4-2 on Friday night in Oakland. With the win, the Yankees are now 90-64 on the season. With eight games left in the regular season, they are 0.5 games up on the Cleveland Guardians for the top seed in the looming American League playoffs.

Yankees starter and reigning American League Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole was outstanding in the effort, going nine innings while striking out seven. Because the Yankees won in the tenth, Cole's performance did not qualify as a complete game.

That's actually a very rare feat in team history, according to @StatsCentre on social media:

@Yankees. starters to go 9+ IP and record a win but not a complete game (since 1945):
Gerrit Cole (Friday)
Ed Figueroa (9/17/76)
Dock Ellis (8/10/76)
Catfish Hunter (7/15/76)
Pat Dobson (9/10/74)
Mel Stottlemyre (7/8/72 & 6/15/73)
Whitey Ford (9/18/56, 8/19/61, 8/1/62 + 7/11/63)

That's a great sign for Cole as the playoffs near. It's been a frustrating year for him, as he dealt with elbow issues and missed the first two-ish months of the season. Furthermore, he recently left a start early but appears to be showing no ill-affects. Cole did still get the win on Friday night, moving to 7-5 with a 3.67 ERA.

He's struck out 94 batters but has just thrown 88.1 innings in 16 outings.

The Yankees will take on the A's again on Saturday night with first pitch coming at 9:07 p.m. ET. It's the penultimate game for the Yankees in Oakland, as the A's will move to Sacramento next season.

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Brady Farkas

BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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