Gerrit Cole 'not terribly disappointed' about brother-in-law Brandon Crawford taking him deep

Tom Gatto

Gerrit Cole 'not terribly disappointed' about brother-in-law Brandon Crawford taking him deep image

Gerrit Cole came out ahead in his showdown with the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday, but he lost an individual battle to a familiar foe.

The only runs Cole allowed in his six innings of work came off the bat of San Francisco shortstop Brandon Crawford, whose sister Amy is Cole's wife.

The family was watching intently from the stands as Crawford hit a line drive into the left-field Crawford (no relation) boxes at Minute Maid Park in the top of the fifth.

This was Crawford's first dinger against Cole in 20 career plate appearances, although Cole said Crawford should have had one when Cole was pitching for the Pirates.

"He hit one really good in Pittsburgh, I'm not sure how many years ago it was, (to) really deep left-center (at PNC Park), which is a hard place to hit it out, and (Starling) Marte robbed him, so he was already kind of in the red minus one," Cole said.

SN's MLB POWER RANKINGS: Astros in top three

It appears Cole was referring to this play by Marte on Aug. 22, 2015.

"It's fitting that he took a good pitch, put a good swing on it and got the home run (Tuesday). Obviously not thrilled about it but not terribly disappointed, either," Cole said.

It helped Cole that the Astros were leading by five runs at the time of the homer and that Houston went on to win the game 11-2.

MORE: Cole fans 16 in win over Diamondbacks

Cole also told reporters he gave Crawford a memento of the occasion: autographed cleats. Turns out there's some history behind the gesture.

Cole told MLB.com in the lead-up to the game that facing Crawford is fun overall, although Crawford said it's not much fun to face one of the top pitchers in baseball, especially this year. Cole is 5-1 with a 1.86 ERA and 101 strikeouts in 67 2/3 innings after Tuesday. He's also 5-1 in seven career starts vs. the Giants.

Crawford has done OK for himself against his kin, though, and after going 2 for 2 Tuesday (he singled in the second inning), he's 6 for 20 lifetime. That's good enough for partial bragging rights, at least.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.