NEW YORK – Right-hander Gerrit Cole wasn’t given a chance to give the Yankees a quality start against the Twins on Friday night at Yankee Stadium.
Mother Nature played a role in his five innings on the mound, but at least the Yankees won the game, 5-2, and snapped their seven-game losing streak.
Cole pitched the first three innings, allowing one run, and then the rain came down, which caused a 53-minute delay. During those three innings, Cole retired nine of the 11 hitters he faced. His only blemish was in the first inning, when he allowed a two-out homer to Kody Clemens. Cole would then retire seven of the next eight hitters he faced before play stopped.
During the delay, Cole had a bullpen session. He had four ups and threw from eight to 15 pitches during each session. After play resumed, Cole came out for the fourth and allowed an RBI single to Victor Caratini.
After the inning ended, manager Aaron Boone was going to take Cole out of the game. Cole had already thrown 78 pitches at that point, but he refused to exit.
“I definitely wasn’t coming out,” Cole said. “I said, ‘I would like to stay in the game, please.’”
Did Cole really say “please”?
“It was implied,” Cole said.
It worked out, as Cole held the Twins scoreless in the fifth.
Cole ended up pitching five innings, allowing two runs on five hits and striking out seven without walking a batter.
It was a night when Cole wasn’t thinking about himself. He was relieved to see the Yankees breaking their losing skid.
“Man, what a rut,” Cole said. “We needed this win today. I just felt like you have to do hard stuff in this league sometimes. Sometimes, it’s not fun to sit around for an hour and 20 minutes in the bullpen. It’s what’s needed. We needed a little bit more tonight. Thankfully, we got it done.”
The last time a Yankees pitcher recorded a quality start was against the Tigers on June 24, when left-hander Ryan Weathers pitched six innings and allowed two runs (one earned) in a 4-2 victory.
Still, Cole was able to even his record at 3-3, thanks to an offense that was averaging just 2.6 runs per game while slashing .173/.227/.289 over the previous 12 games.
Leave it to Trent Grisham, just coming off the 10-day IL, to get things rolling in the first inning. He led off the bottom half and went yard on a 3-2 pitch from Mike Paredes. Grisham ended up going 2-for-3 with two RBIs.
Grisham thought he would be rusty in his first game since June 12.
“I wasn’t thinking of a home run right away,” Grisham said. “I was trying to put together good at-bats. But I was surprised. The way I was working tonight, it was as if I never left. I thought I had to fight it a little bit – get back into things.”
Two innings later, Ben Rice, who had two hits in his past 25 at-bats, contributed a two-run homer off Paredes.
The Yankees hope the victory will be the start of something big. Grisham noted that most winning teams go through dry spells at some point during the season.
“If we are going to be the team we want to be at the end of the year and win it all, you usually go through things like this,” Grisham said. “It’s kind of part of it. It’s how we respond to [the losing streak].
“Nobody wants it. Nobody wishes for it. But I think it’s good for us going forward. Snapping it tonight felt good.”