BOSTON – As Gerrit Cole describes it, an important mental shift occurred right around the moment Willson Contreras’ third-inning drive bounced off the Green Monster, chasing home two more Red Sox runs.
Walking back to the mound, Cole received an underhand flip from first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, then accepted that his best stuff might not show up on this particular afternoon. The results improved, giving Cole something to chew on after the Yankees’ 4-1 loss at Fenway Park.
“I just tried to free myself up, to be honest,” Cole said. “The command just sometimes isn’t there, so I tried to be more aggressive and not care as much about where the pitch is going.”
With that, Cole retired eight of the next 10 batters, pitching around a couple of singles. Amid uneven results, he considered it an encouraging development.
Cole took the loss for a second consecutive start, charged with four runs over 5 1/3 innings as the Yankees fell for the seventh time in 10 games.
“The last three or four innings, I thought he really got aggressive,” manager Aaron Boone said. “It was a little bit like, ‘Let’s just let it rip and get after it.’ I thought he finished really well, but obviously he made some mistakes early.”
Masataka Yoshida parked Cole’s second pitch for a leadoff home run, and Anthony Seigler cleared the left-field wall for his first Major League homer in the second. Cole scattered seven hits and walked one in an 89-pitch outing (61 for strikes).
After throwing 12 2/3 scoreless innings over his first two starts of the year, Cole has a 6.12 ERA (17 earned runs in 25 innings) over his past five starts.
“There were a handful of really good swings,” Cole said. “The reality is, it’s probably close. But this is the big leagues, so sometimes close isn’t good enough.”
Yankees catcher Austin Wells said he sensed a different demeanor settle into place after Contreras’ double.
“There’s going to be little things you slowly start to unlock and start to feel like yourself again,” Wells said. “He freed himself up from trying to be too perfect in the first couple of innings. He’s been carrying that for a little bit. He was able to break free from that in the last couple of innings; just go out there and pitch and not worry too much about the results.”
Fenway Park has never made it onto Cole’s list of favorite places to pitch. Since joining the Yankees in 2020, Cole has pitched to a 6.88 ERA across seven starts at Fenway Park (27 earned runs in 35 1/3 innings), including the postseason.
“It was too much to overcome today, which is disappointing,” Cole said.
Dropping a third straight game to the Red Sox, the Yankees struggled to mount offense, limited to Max Schuemann’s solo homer. Left-hander Jake Bennett permitted three hits over 6 1/3 sharp innings, exiting to a standing ovation – just as lefty Payton Tolle did on Friday.
“Those guys are pitching really well right now,” Wells said. “They’ve got some young guys that have thrown well, and a lot of us don’t have a lot of experience facing them before.”
The Yanks have struggled to handle a steady diet of left-handed starters of late, dropping six of their past seven such assignments after beginning the year 18-6 against lefties.
Over their past 10 games, the Yanks have averaged 2.5 runs, going 6-for-66 (.091) with runners in scoring position.
That coincides with ongoing slumps for Ben Rice and Cody Bellinger, two big pieces of a lineup looking to keep things afloat while Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton work toward their respective returns from the injured list.
“Even guys that are going to the All-Star Game and are in MVP conversations, there’s going to be weeks where it’s not easy,” Boone said.
Bellinger went 1-for-2 with two walks on Saturday, but he is 5-for-33 (.152) over the 10-game span. Rice went hitless in four at-bats, falling to 2-for-23 (.087) in his past six games.
It’s no fun while they go through it, but Bellinger senses things will turn soon.
“Hitting is contagious,” Bellinger said. “Sometimes it’s tough to get some rallies going. We hit some balls hard right at people. Ultimately, they’ve been shutting us down. We’ve got to come in tomorrow, prepare, and execute our plan a little better.”