“Kevin, can you pick up the Player of the Game for Game 1 of the ALDS?”
“Sure… I hope I can write about Gerrit Cole going eight shutty.”
Baseball can be a cruel sport. I suspect we all would have signed up for five innings of one-run ball from Gerrit Cole at The Trop Saturday night. That’s the kind of thing that the vast majority of the time would have put the Yankees in great position to steal home-field advantage from the Rays.
The above is exactly what we got from Cole. Unfortunately, on the other
side Drew Rasmussen was basically untouchable, toying with a formerly hot Yankee offense. Cole being merely excellent was therefore not enough. But on a night when nary a hitter was worthy of being honored, Cole’s sterling five innings makes him the Player of the Game, albeit in a losing effort.
His final line: 5 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K
At the end of the day, Cole made one mistake all night, in the third inning – a 2-2 changeup middle-away to Jonathan Aranda that the Rays lefty turned around and drove out to right center for a solo home run, the lone run either team scraped across Saturday. I don’t even hate that location. Just have to tip your cap to Aranda to a certain extent.
Otherwise, Cole gave the Yankees everything they could have asked for, other than perhaps more length. Though the venerable ace was only sitting at 82 pitches through five innings, so likely could have come back out for another frame if needed. But with a fully rested bullpen in a one-run game, it made sense for manager Aaron Boone to be aggressive. To give the skipper his due, his moves worked, and the ‘pen held Tampa scoreless for the remainder of the game.
Much was made coming into Game 1 about the increased induced vertical break (IVB) on Cole’s four-seam fastball at The Trop versus in outdoor environments, where the wind can mess with it. Reportedly, the way Cole’s stuff plays indoors was a key reason for going with him in Game 1.
Since joining the Yankees, Cole’s heater has averaged 19.3 inches of IVB inside Tropicana, compared to 17.7 inches at Yankee Stadium. Saturday, it averaged 17 inches of IVB, down considerably from his average while pitching in Tampa. Despite that drop, the pitch remained effective nonetheless.
Cole got seven whiffs on 27 swings at his heater, and averaged 96.8-mph with it, maxing out at 98.8-mph. Three of his five strikeouts came on the offering, including a 96-mph fastball to Victor Mesa, Jr. that looked like it was still rising as Mesa swung through it.
The curveball was Cole’s secondary weapon Saturday, especially against lefties (he threw the pitch 27% of the time when facing the platoon disadvantage). He racked up his other two strikeouts with the pitch, including one up in the zone that turned Junior Caminero’s knees to jelly.
Cole’s outing on Saturday moves his career playoff ERA since joining the Yankees down to 2.85 in 72.2 innings. Hopefully, he’ll get to appear again this postseason, whether later in this series against the Rays or against an AL Central foe in the ALCS, to bring that already nice ERA even lower.
