HOUSTON — This was the mound on which Gerrit Cole made himself into an elite starter. Saturday, Minute Maid Park was where he rediscovered how he could still be one of the most dominant pitchers in the game. The Yankees ace threw a complete-game shutout and carried the Bombers to a 1-0 win over the Astros after being received by the sell-out crowd of 41,259 with a mix of cheers and boos.
The Yankees (46-42) have won two straight and four out of their last five. The win clinched the three-game series for the Bombers, who have now won back-to-back series for the first time since they beat the Royals on June 23-24. After beginning this road trip in fourth place in the American League East and 9.5 games out, they moved back ahead of the Blue Jays into sole possession of third place.
It was a huge win for the Yankees, powered by a third-inning home run by Aaron Judge off Zack Greinke.
The win was perhaps bigger for Cole, who was coming off his shortest start in five years. He willed himself through a career-high 129 pitches. It was his first nine-inning game since May 4, 2018, when he was an Astro.
It came on the heels of his 3 1/3 innings against the Mets that saw him leave the mound at Yankee Stadium to Bronx boos. It was his second straight stinker and in the light of MLB’s crackdown on the sticky stuff that pitchers use to get a better grip and spin rate, Cole’s last month had raised eyebrows and concerns.
He needed to end the first half of the season showing he can still be the Yankees’ ace and stopper. Saturday, he was dominant against the best offense in the AL, albeit without Alex Bregman (quad strain) and Carlo Correa (COVID-19 IL). Cole used his fastball early and then mixed his pitches in the third time through the lineup to effectively keep the Astros off balance.
He allowed two hits, walked two and struck out 12. It was his first double-digit strikeout game since May 12 against the Rays. It was nine straight games without at least 10 strikeouts after having five such games in his first eight starts of the season.
Cole took a no-hitter into the fifth, when it was spoiled on Abraham Toro’s one-out fly ball to shallow center field.
Besides a dominant performance, Cole gave the bullpen a break on a night when the Yankees were without Chad Green, who pitched two scoreless innings on Friday, and Jonathan Loaisiga, who was placed on the COVID-19 injured list before the game.
It was the first time Cole returned to Minute Maid Park since he left as a free agent after Houston lost Game 7 of the World Series in 2019. In his two years with the Astros, Cole went from a good young pitcher to one of the most dominant in the game. While he and other Astros pitchers cited the Astros’ use of analytics, the decision to scrap his two-seam fastball and focus on the four-seamer up in the zone, there were suspicions that Cole and other Astros pitchers were using a special sticky substance to increase spin rates and command.
Cole’s former college teammate Trevor Bauer publicly called out Cole’s increase in spin rate when he was traded from Pittsburgh to Houston. Obviously, since then Cole’s been dragged even further into the “sticky stuff” scandal. He was mentioned in a lawsuit asking former Angels clubhouse attendant Bubba Harkins — who admitted to making a special pine-tar based substance for pitchers — to help him out of a “sticky situation,” in a text. Twins slugger Josh Donaldson also called out Cole as one of the first pitchers to see a dramatic drop in his spin rate in the first start after MLB suspended four minor league pitchers, a message they would be cracking down on the use of anything beyond rosin.
And then there were Cole’s dramatic splits.
In his first 11 starts this season, Cole pitched to a 1.78 ERA, allowing 14 earned runs and five home runs. He struck out 97 and walked just nine. Since June 3, Cole has allowed 20 earned runs and 10 home runs over 34 1/3 innings pitched. He has walked 11 and struck out 38. His ERA over that span is 5.24. He is coming off back-to-back devastating starts for the Yankees, getting shelled by the Red Sox and then by the Mets.
Cole went 35-10 with a 2.68 ERA over 65 starts with the Astros, leading the majors in strikeouts during that time, including recording 326 punchouts over 212 1/3 innings pitched in 2019.
