Gerrit Cole was a Yankees' fan back in 2001, but shut them down hard in 2019.
MLBBy Andrew Bucholtz on

The Houston Astros came up with a big 4-1 road win over the New York Yankees Tuesday to take a 2-1 lead in the American League Championship Series, and strong pitching from starter Gerrit Cole was a huge part of that. Cole pitched seven innings and didn’t allow a run, despite conceding five walks and four hits and only striking out seven batters (ending a run of double-digit strikeout performances). As MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart relays, Cole said afterwards that he didn’t have his best stuff, especially early on.

“I mean, we just had to work it. Fastball command wasn’t ideal, especially early. It seemed like it was kind of spotty. But I felt like once I got to the fifth inning, I started to roll a little bit and we found the location a bit better. We played really good defense and a couple of runs early helped the approach.”

“We needed to come in here and get a win. I just wanted to keep them off the board as long as I could. If I had to throw 120 in four, I was going to throw 120 in four. The bullpen is fresh. We trust those guys.”

Cole certainly did have some stuff, though:

And Cole improved to 19-0 in his last 25 starts, extending the longest single-season pitcher win streak in MLB history. But he had some offensive help doing so, particularly with first and second-inning solo home runs from José Altuve and Josh Reddick respectively:

This had a lot to do with the showing from Cole, though. Even if, as the Fox broadcast noted, he might have disappointed his past self:

Well, Cole certainly wasn’t a Yankee fan here. And his performance gave Astros’ fans a lot to cheer about.

[MLB.com]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

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