Inside The Pinstripes

Yankees' Gerrit Cole Hitting His Stride After Cold Start to Season

Cole earned another win on Friday night in Chicago, shutting down the White Sox for his fourth quality start in a row of six-plus innings.

Max Goodman

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CHICAGO — Even as Gerrit Cole stumbled out of the gates to start this season, the Yankees have had one of the best rotations in all of baseball.

Now, in the seventh turn through New York's starting staff, Cole is hitting his stride, distancing himself from his turbulent opening act.

Cole posted a 6.35 ERA over his first three starts this season. Pitching just 11.1 innings, coming off an abbreviated spring training, the right-hander permitted eight runs to score on nine hits with three long balls in that span.

Since then, including Friday night's victory over the White Sox in Chicago, Cole has posted a 1.42 ERA, striking out more batters while limiting base runners. 

New York's ace wasn't his sharpest on Friday night, allowing three earned runs on six hits (with nine strikeouts) in 6.1 frames, but he battled, picking his team up despite suspect play behind him.

Leaning on early run support—New York erupted for a second-straight night, scoring double-digit runs in a 10-4 victory—Cole was able to find his rhythm after a rocky first inning.

In that first frame, an error from Isiah Kiner-Falefa at shortstop, on what could've been a double play ball, loaded the bases with one man out. Cole proceeded to strike out designated hitter Gavin Sheets and left fielder AJ Pollock to get out of the inning unscathed. 

"Obviously, that first inning, some stuff he had to deal with and he picked us up big time," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said after the win, New York's 17th in their last 19 games. "Had to work hard to get outs, to hold them down to no runs in that situation where we gave an extra out. I thought he did a great job navigating that inning and then got pitch efficient. I thought he settled into a really good groove there. Had to navigate around some more things towards the end of his night, but I thought overall, I thought he threw the ball really well."

Cole added postgame that he was able to execute some good pitches when there was traffic on the bases, limiting Chicago's offense throughout. The three runs scored against Cole came on a balk with a man on third base in the fourth and a two-run homer off the bat of Sheets on a pitch Cole would love to have back in the sixth.

Asked specifically about the defense behind him (two errors from Kiner-Falefa), Cole said it goes two ways. Sometimes defenders bail out a pitcher by making a timely play. This time, it happened to be a night where Cole needed to pitch his way out of certain situations.

"It goes back and forth," he explained. "Somebody's gonna have to make a diving play to get out of a jam. This time, I got the opportunity to get us out of the jam."

Cole now has a 2.95 ERA over seven starts this season, striking out 46 batters in 36.2 innings. 

The fact that New York's collective pitching staff still has the third-best ERA in the sport, even after Cole's slow start, is a testament to just how good the likes of Nestor Cortes, Michael King, Jameson Taillon and more have been. 

It also makes you wonder just how dominant this staff can be if Cole continues pitching like a true ace of the staff. It's no coincidence the Yankees have won each of the last four times the right-hander has toed the rubber. 

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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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