MINNEAPOLIS — Instead of walking to the back of the mound as he usually does, Gerrit Cole stood at the edge of the mound and stared at Josh Donaldson for a few seconds. He got the Twins third baseman to swing on a 86-mile an hour knuckle curveball in the first inning at Target Field.
Then Cole reached up and lifted the brim of his cap as he watched the man who had called him out, accusing him of using an illegal sticky substance, walk back to his dugout.
Cole and the Yankees responded to controversy and embarrassment by going out and pounding Donaldson and the Twins. With nine strikeouts from Cole and two home runs from Giancarlo Stanton and homers from Aaron Judge and Miguel Andujar, the Bombers beat the Twins 9-6.
It was the second straight win for the Yankees, after four straight losses. They have now won 10 of their last 12 series against the Twins.
But Wednesday night was all about Cole and Donaldson.
Cole allowed two runs on five hits. He did not walk a batter and struck out nine. He gave up solo home runs to Miguel Sano and Jorge Polanco.
But the matchup everyone in baseball had been waiting for was kind of a dud. Cole struck out Donaldson twice and got him to fly out to right. He stared in at Donaldson after both strikeouts and touched the tip of his hat.
Cole’s average fastball spin rate Wednesday was 2,493 rpms, down minimally from his season average of 2552. It actually increased 125 RPMs on his changeup, according to Baseball Savant.
Cole has long been at the center of the discussion about pitchers going over the line in using sticky substances to improve their spin rate and command. Last week Donaldson made him the face of an issue that MLB has suddenly decided they have to crack down on. He questioned why Cole’s spin rate dropped in his last start, which came right after four minor league pitchers were suspended for using illegal substances.
Donaldson did say he wasn’t intending to single out Cole.
“I don’t regret anything that I’ve said. I mean, first off when I say something, it’s been thought through before. It’s not just something on a whim,” Donaldson said before Wednesday night’s game. “I would say this with Gerrit Cole, he was the first guy to pitch, since the suspensions had happened, and he’s the first guy that you can see spin rates going down. We’re going off the interview that was done about four or five days ago. Since then, there’s been 12 or more guys already, whose RPMs magically dropped in the last week.
So it’s not just Gerrit Cole,” Donaldson said. “I want to get that out. With that being said, we’ll see how it plays out.”
Cole’s attempt to answer the questions about why he was singled out and if he had ever used Spider Tack, the substance at the center of the controversy, was painfully vague and pointedly off topic.
“Um, I don’t….I don’t know…..quite know how to answer that, to be honest,” Cole said after an awkward pause, when asked if he had ever used Spider Tack. “I mean there are customs and practices that have been passed down from older players, to younger players from the last generation of players, to this generation of players. And I think there are some things that are certainly out of bounds in that regard and I’ve stood pretty firm in terms of that, in terms of the communication between our peers and whatnot.
“Like I mentioned earlier,” Cole continued, “this is important to a lot of people that love the game, including the players in this room, including fans, including teams, and so if MLB wants to legislate some more stuff, that’s a conversation that we can have, because, ultimately, we should all be pulling in the same direction on this.”
Cole was unequivocal on the mound and his offense backed him up Wednesday night.
It was just the 10th time ever that Judge and Stanton have homered in the same game. The last time was April 27 in Baltimore. Stanton started out with a double in the first and then crushed a three-run home run in the third. It had been over a month since his last homer, May 6, 2021. An inning later when Stanton hit his next, a two-run shot. Miguel Andujar hit his fifth home run in the last eight games and drove in another with a sacrifice fly. Brett Gardner had three hits and drove in a run.
