Inside The Pinstripes

Gerrit Cole Breaks Down His Yankees Spring Training Debut

Gerrit Cole made his first in-game appearance of the spring Monday night. The right-hander broke down his performance and revealed why he wasn't completely satisfied

Max Goodman

TAMPA, Fla. – After throwing one clean inning in his Yankees' Spring Training debut, Gerrit Cole wasn't completely satisfied.

Sure, he called his first outing in pinstripes "fun," explaining that he had no nerves and was eager to get his work in as he took the mound against the Pirates on Monday night. Nonetheless, the one base runner he allowed – a two-out walk to shortstop Cole Tucker – was still bugging him as he stood at his locker.

"Lost the one guy 0-2, Tucker," Cole explained. "Couple quality fastballs at the top but one of those three has to be in the zone. Next outing will be continuing to fine-tune some command, but also keep the execution in terms of how the stuff is coming out really high, I think there was only one or two pretty poor pitches."

Other than the walk, the right-hander was perfect. He struck out two out of the four hitters he faced – the one ball hit in fair territory was a towering pop fly off the bat of Pittsburgh's leadoff hitter Adam Frazier.

Cole threw just the one inning for a total of 20 pitches, 12 of which were strikes. He topped off at 98 miles per hour on his fastball. Don't be alarmed that he's throwing so hard this early in Spring Training. The right-hander confirmed that this is right where he wants to be.

"That’s kind of why I tried to keep [it at one inning]," he explained. "Some guys go two innings early. I like to take it just one at a time for the first two or three until you build up that tolerance to up and down and then you can extend pitch counts in certain situations here and there."

After getting Frazier for the game's first out, Cole settled in quickly. With two strikes, Cole narrowly missed a punch out on Pittsburgh's Bryan Reynolds with a backdoor offspeed pitch. Moments later, he threw his slider in the dirt in the perfect spot for the lefty to whiff – a good test for his backstop Gary Sánchez, who blocked it in the dirt.

"Yeah that was a good pitch," Cole recalled. "I threw my slider there earlier in the count. Didn’t get it quite underneath the bat. And then the second one was executed even better. It’s good to follow up a good one with a better one."

With two men out, after walking Tucker, Josh Bell stepped in the box. Cole got the slugger to climb the ladder, chasing a high fastball for the final out of the inning.

"After the walk, where he missed a little up, came back and really executed how he wanted to at the top of the strike zone to get that last strikeout," skipper Aaron Boone said in his office postgame. "Good work for him. The stuff was obviously really good and sharp which we kind of expected knowing he was going to go a little bit shorter."

Cole revealed that beyond the pitches he threw, he continued to grow more comfortable with his teammates on the diamond. He said he's already in sync with Sánchez, but the next step is to take that mental telepathy to another level.

"Just trying to keep communicating with Gary so we can hopefully read each other’s minds at some point," Cole joked.

According to Boone, Cole will make his next start on Saturday as the right-hander eases into his five-day routine. The Yankees play two games that day – a split squad with one road game and one at home – Cole will stick around for matchup with the Detroit Tigers at George M. Steinbrenner Field.

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Max Goodman
MAX GOODMAN

Max Goodman covers the New York Yankees for Sports Illustrated and FanNation. Goodman has been on the Yankees beat for three seasons. He is also the publisher of Sports Illustrated and FanNation's Jets site, Jets Country. Before starting Inside The Pinstripes, Goodman attended Northwestern University and the Medill School of Journalism. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Broadcast Journalism and Master’s Degree in Sports Media, graduating in 2019. At school, Goodman was an anchor and reporter with NNN SportsNight and played on the club baseball team. While at Northwestern, Goodman interned with MLB.com as an associate reporter covering the Miami Marlins. He also interned with ESPN, working as an associate reporter on Mike Greenberg's Get Up. Goodman is from New York City. He grew up in Hell's Kitchen. Follow Goodman on Twitter @MaxTGoodman. You can connect with him via email by reaching out at maxgoodmansports@gmail.com.

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