Yankees Pitcher Gerrit Cole Sets Record for Opening Day Strikeouts

New York Yankees starter Gerrit Cole struck out 10 San Francisco Giants hitters in the first four innings on Thursday during his Opening Day start. No Yankees pitcher has ever reached double-digit strikeouts throughout their long and glorious history.

NEW YORK — In the long and illustrious history of New York Yankees baseball, no pitcher has ever had double-digit strikeouts on Opening Day.

Until Thursday.

Gerrit Cole reached 10 strikeouts in just the fourth inning during the Yankees' first game of the year against the San Francisco Giants at Yankee Stadium. He broke the Yankees' Opening Day record of nine set by Tim Leary in 1991.

After walking Lamonte Wade Jr. on four pitches to open the game, Cole struck out Michael Conforto, Wilmer Flores and Joc Pederson in order. He also struck out the side in the second inning and gave up a one-out single. 

He had two strikeouts in the third and fourth innings respectively, and struck out Mike Yastrzemski for the second out in the fourth for his 10th strikeout. Cole, who is starting his 11th season in the big leagues, has never and a double-digit strikeout day on Opening Day, either.

The New York Yankees are leading 3-0 through four innings. Aaron Judge hit a solo home run in the first inning, and Gleyber Torres had a two-run homer in the fourth.

Cole wound up pitching six scoreless innings, and finished with 11 strikeouts. He threw 95 pitches and gave up just three singles and to walks, none in the same inning. The Yankees won 5-0.

San Francisco Giants starter Logan Webb also set a team Opening Day strikeout record. He had 12 strikeouts through six innings.   

Here is Gerrit Cole's postgame press conference:

Gerrit Cole recaps his stellar #OpeningDay outing with @M_Marakovits. pic.twitter.com/I5L18WcEhy

— YES Network (@YESNetwork) March 30, 2023

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