Yankees' Gerrit Cole Explains Why He Lost His Cool, Getting Ejected For First Time
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NEW YORK — Gerrit Cole wears his emotions on his sleeve when he's on the mound, reacting with each pitch through the strikeouts, the home runs and everything in-between.
That said, it's extremely rare to see him bark at an umpire and get ejected.
In fact, Cole had never been tossed from an MLB game before his start on Friday night against the Red Sox.
Mix a close call on a two-strike pitch that could've gotten Cole to the showers with a debilitating three-run home run to tie the game and the Yankees' right-hander couldn't hold his displeasure in as he walked off the mound in the sixth inning.
Pointing toward home-plate umpire Brian Knight, while screaming out an expletive or two, Cole was quickly tossed. Yankees manager Aaron Boone was ejected from the ballgame as well, sprinting out of the dugout to protect Cole and catcher Jose Trevino.
"It's just an emotional moment," Cole said after the game, a 5-4 win for New York over the Red Sox. "First career ejection. I'm just a competitor. I'm just upset."
Cole was one pitch away from getting out of the sixth inning with outfielder Alex Verdugo at the plate. His 1-2 fastball looked to clip the outside corner of the zone. Cole was already walking toward the home dugout, thinking he had ended the inning. Knight didn't give him the call.
On the very next pitch, Cole left a heater over the heart of the plate and Verdugo walloped a three-run homer to right, tying the game at four runs apiece.
After Cole struck out the next batter he faced to officially end the inning, that's when he yelled at Knight, voicing his anger over that decisive 1-2 pitch.
"It's the worst pitch of the sequence, he put obviously a beautiful swing on it and did what he wanted to do with the pitch," Cole added, agreeing that the ejection was a product of the missed pitch to Verdugo that led to the homer as well as a culmination of his entire outing leading up to that point. "I think when we analyze that inning, there's probably a couple of pitches that we want back, but the damage there is hard to swallow."
Cole said his teammates had been chirping at Knight from the dugout throughout the game, giving him some flack over calls they were unhappy with on offense. He thought that contributed to Knight's "quick fuse."
Even with the sour conclusion to Cole's start, Boone praised the right-hander for his performance, saying that he thought the ace was "so good."
"I thought he was as dialed in as he could be," Boone said. "I thought his body language was great all night. I thought his execution both sides of the plate with his fastball wasn't overthrowing it. I thought he used his curveball really effectively tonight. He's a pitch away from just having an awesome outing. So I think there's some frustration there, but I think there's a lot of really good takeaways from this that we need to keep building on."
MORE:
- Gerrit Cole Gets Ejected After Allowing Game-Tying Home Run Against Red Sox
- Aaron Boone: Aaron Judge Is Having Best Season Ever
- Aaron Judge Just Misses Historic Homer in Unforgettable Moment
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