Yankees' Gerrit Cole Owns Oakland, Reaching Strikeout Milestone
OAKLAND — It's a long walk from the pitcher's mound to the dugout at RingCentral Coliseum in Oakland.
Rookie Greg Weissert learned that the hard way on Thursday night, forced to make the walk of shame to the visitor's bench on the first-base side after a debut to forget.
On Friday night, Yankees ace Gerrit Cole had a different experience, soaking in a well-deserved standing ovation as he strode slowly across the Coliseum's swath of foul territory, greeted at the top step by his teammates.
Cole threw 7.1 innings of one-run ball in Friday night's 3-2 win over the Athletics, earning his 10th win of the season. He struck out 11 batters, allowing just three hits with two walks.
"Just on the attack early and good stuff, good game plan and executing a lot of good pitches," Cole said after the game with New York's championship belt, handed out to the player of the game, glistening behind him in his locker.
From jump street, Cole was locked in, mowing Oakland's mediocre lineup down. He flashed what looked like no-hit stuff in the bottom of the first, retiring the side—with two strikeouts—on just 10 pitches.
"He was on from the very first pitch he threw," center fielder Aaron Judge added. "When you see a guy come out in the first inning and do what he did, I was like, 'he's going to be rolling for a while.'"
Oakland cracked the hit column two innings later when top prospect Shea Langeliers ripped a two-out single back up the box. In the seventh, second baseman Jonah Bride hooked a hanging knuckle curve over the left-field wall for a solo home run, Bride's first MLB homer.
Still, Cole had his four-pitch mix working on Friday night, cruising through the middle innings after dancing around some traffic in the early going. He got Oakland's hitters to swing and miss 16 times, nine coming on his slider.
"I thought he had a great slider tonight," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "I thought he did a really good job early on, staying tall and creating good angles with his pitches. He had a good fastball going, but I thought his slider was especially good tonight. And then he got efficient in a lot of innings which allowed him to get deep in the game."
Immediately after the solo homer in the seventh, Cole buckled down and struck out outfielder Cal Stevenson on eight pitches, his 11th punch out of the night. That strikeout, on a perfectly-placed curveball, was his 200th of the season, making Cole the first pitcher in baseball to reach 200 this year.
With nearly six weeks remaining in the regular season, Cole is in position to potentially set a new personal best with the Yankees in the strikeout department. Last year, over 181.1 innings, Cole had 243 strikeouts. This year, he's at 200 through 157.2 frames.
Cole acknowledged that it's nice to reach a milestone this early in the season—his fifth time eclipsing 200 in his career—but that personal accolades are not his focus. He and his teammates have bigger fish to fry with October on the horizon.
"It's a meaningful number, but we're not done yet," Cole said.
MORE:
- Yankees Turned Down This Pablo López Trade Offer From Marlins at Deadline
- Why Nestor Cortes Landing on Injured List Can 'Serve Him Well'
- JP Sears Excited to Face Former Team After 'Surprising' Trade
Follow Max Goodman on Twitter (@MaxTGoodman), be sure to bookmark Inside The Pinstripes and check back daily for news, analysis and more.
