New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole didn't look quite as sharp during his second start of the season against the Mets on Tuesday night.
Part of that was a noticeable decrease in velocity. While some wondered whether it was due to some lingering issues as he comes back from an elbow injury, Cole had a different explanation.
After maxing out his fastball at 98.9 mph and sitting in the 96-97 mph range during a 28-pitch first inning, Cole felt it was best to dial it back a bit moving forward.
"I was very encouraged by the first inning. That was free and easy," Cole said Tuesday. "But there’s a certain point where it’s like my objective is to get deep into the ballgame, and I’m not quite sure I’m ready to just keep sitting 97 to 99."
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The result was far from what the Yankees needed from their stopper. Cole dialed it back as he said, failing to reach 96 mph on any fastball for the remainder of the game.
“It’s a bit like driving a car,” said Cole. “Too much clutch or too little clutch can slip you out of gear a little bit. So obviously it came out really tremendous in the first and had to make a lot of pitches. But the reality is we just weren’t in the strike zone enough and it cost us 28 pitches."
It led to Cole making some Yankees history for all the wrong reasons. The reigning Cy Young winner allowed six earned runs and seven hits in 4.0 innings on 72 pitches.
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He became the first pitcher in Yankees history to allow four home runs and four walks without recording a strikeout in a single outing.
It was the second time in his career that he allowed four home runs in an outing and the second time in his career he failed to record a strikeout.
Manager Aaron Boone echoed the sentiments that Cole is still finding his footing coming off an injury that kept him on the shelf for the first two-plus months of the season.
“He’s kind of finding his gauge out there,” Boone said. “He’s not all the way built up out of spring, and he is coming back from an injury and being down. So the buildup matters.”
Cole is still working his way up, and it's going to be a process. Unfortunately, that process is going to entail some ugly results sometimes.
“I’ve never been out there trying to throw my max effort, certainly, for the entirety of a game,” Cole said. “So it’s just a little bit of give and take. The reality is that give and take needs to get sharper.”
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