From Bryan Hoch:
Gerrit Cole paced the length of the Yankees’ dugout during the early innings of Tuesday night’s game against the White Sox, glove tucked near his belt as he wriggled his right arm, keeping it loose. The Yankees’ ace had the luxury of time to kill.
Spencer Jones, Ben Rice and Paul Goldschmidt all homered off Davis Martin to highlight the Bombers’ attack, giving Cole a hefty cushion over his six-inning effort in New York’s 12-2 victory in the Bronx.
Now, normally, I would go with a pitcher featured image in a game he only allowed two run over six innings, but I dunno, Cole kind of annoyed me in this one with that sixth inning, throwing 20 pitches or so up 11-1, allowing a run to score. It makes me wonder what kind of performance he would have had had the Yankees not broken the White Sox’s spirit with their deluge of runs.
And, more importantly, Davis Martin came into this game with a 2.41 ERA, and left with a 3.31 ERA. He had allowed only three home runs all season, and the Yankees hit three home runs off of him. The White Sox clearly wanted to get through at least five innings with him to save the bullpen, and they COULDN’T.
AND it was Spencer Jones’ first home run in Yankees Stadium, so I am going to give this one to the offense.
Great win, and with the Rays losing to the Dodgers again, the Yankees now have a 2.5 game lead in the division, which is cool.
About the Author
Agree. And odd to call going from 2 starts with NOTHING allowed to a few starts that were good, but not superlative “building towards” anything.
(I’m not in the least down on Cole, he’s fantastic, just to be clear.)
Oh, totally. Cole seems to be comfortably sliding into that #2 slot in the rotation behind Schlittler, but I almost wonder if he would be their #3 if Fried returns healthy.
Well, I hope Cole will be between the last two (pretty good) games and the first two (immaculate) games.
And I’d trust him in a big postseason spot over Fried (who I really like, but still).
Yeah, agreed, but I think that also determines just how well Fried pitches when he returns. But yes, in general, I imagine the plan will be Schlittler/Cole/Fried/Rodon. That’s a fucking sick rotation.
Absolutely. I think Cole may end up back at #1, but – either way if Fried is your #3, you’re in pretty damned good shape.
It’s a fascinating question whether you just trust Cole’s experience and make him the #1 regardless. I don’t HATE the idea, but Schlittler has been just so fucking dominant that it’s hard not to want him to be the guy who pitches the most games.
Schlittler had a stretch of 5 or six really not so dominant games, actually. The last one looked better, although still not what he started the season with.
And Cole came back with two untouchable outings. At that point, to me, he was clearly ahead of Schlittler.
Right now, I think, it’s hard to say.
Anyone recall where the half game came from? I recall the Yankees and Rays being an even amount of games for a while.
Rays played on Monday when the Yankees were off. It should even up again tomorrow.
Thanks!
As for playoff number 1 the answer right now has to be “we’ll see.” I would be tempted to say Cole based on experience, but Schlittler has also proved himself in the playoffs
It’s moot, everyone will be injured. Clarke Schmidt will be the #1 followed by Gil, Yarby, and Blackburn, with Oswaldo Cabrera available in long relief
Clay Holmes acquired in a deadline trade for Lombard, Dominguez, and Elmer
Boone will make Holmes the closer because his stuff plays up in the ‘pen. Robertson will come out of retirement to be the setup guy
Anthony Kay does have a huge split for the year
P Goldschmidt (R) 1B
B Rice (L) DH
A Rosario (R) 3B
C Bellinger (L) CF
J Domínguez (S) RF
J Chisholm Jr. (L) 2B
J Caballero (R) LF
A Volpe (R) SS
A Sánchez (R) C
It is crazy how well Dominguez has taken to right field.
He looks legitimately GOOD out there.
Freddy f’n Freeman puts the devil rays in the hole
They should probably put Stanton on the 60 at this point and add a position player