Cole’s strikeouts, spin rate down, Royals rally past Yanks
NEW YORK — Gerrit Cole’s strikeouts and spin rate dropped as he pitched for the first time since Major League Baseball’s crackdown on sticky substances, and Ryan O’Hearn and the Kansas City Royals rallied against the Yankees’ bullpen for four runs in the eighth inning to beat New York Yankees 6-5 Tuesday night.
Cole, among the pitchers under highest scrutiny as umpires regularly search pitchers this week for unauthorized grip enhancers, allowed two runs and three hits in seven innings, showing his usual velocity but without his explosive strikeout pitches.
Luke Voit homered and tripled in his return from the injured list as the Yankees built a 3-2 lead.
Kansas City erased an eighth-inning deficit by taking a 6-3 lead against Jonathan Loaisga (7-3) as O’Hearn, Jarrod Dyson, Hunter Dozier and Michael A. Taylor drove in runs.
DJ LeMahieu hit a tworun homer with one out in the bottom half against Kyle Zimmer and Aaron Judge doubled off the left-field wall against Scott Barlow, who then retired pinchhitter Rougned Odor and Giancarlo Stanton.
Greg Holland allowed Gio Urshela’s bloop single leading off the ninth, then got his fifth save in nine chances. Gleyber Torres struck out for the fourth time and Clint Frazier also fanned. After Gary Sanchez was intentionally walked, Brett Gardner popped out on a night the Yankees went 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position and left 13 on base.
Jake Brentz (2-0) won despite allowing New York to take a 3-2 lead on his seventh-inning wild pitch.
No. 66 on both teams homered in the same game for the first time in major league history, the Yankees’ Kyle Higashioka in the first inning off Brady Singer and O’Hearn in the fourth.
Cole had his glove and cap searched by umpires after the third and sixth innings and was given an all-clear. A white card, presumably switchable signs, fell out of Cole’s cap when he handed it to umpires for first inspection.
His fastball velocity was consistently around 98 mph and as high as 101 mph. Still, he struck out six after fanning four against Toronto last Wednesday, his first consecutive outings with six or fewer strikeouts since September 2017. Cole had struck out 104 in his first 12 starts this season.
Cole’s fastball revolutions per minute, which averaged 2,534 coming in, ranged from 2,084-2,471. His curveball dropped from 2,824 to 2,441-2,773, his slider from 2,686 to 2,334 to 2,578 and his changeup from 1,746 to 1,518 to 1,812.
Voit, in his first game since May 25 after recovering from an oblique strain, jumped on a first-pitch belt-high slider in the first inning. He smiled widely while rounding the bases, gave three leaping highfives to teammates after crossing the plate and gave a shout in the dugout.
Kansas City got a run in the third on a pair of broken-bat singles and Whit Merrifield’s soft RBI grounder to the right. O’Hearn, recalled to take Adalberto Mondesi’s roster spot, drove a changeup into the right-field seats leading off the fourth to tie the score 2-2.
BRAVES 3, METS 0
NEW YORK — Charlie Morton struck out 11 in seven innings of one-hit ball for his 100th major league win, and the Braves beat the banged-up Mets for their second consecutive shutout against New York.
Mets starter Marcus Stroman exited in the second inning with a sore left hip, the latest blow to a depleted team decimated by pitching injuries lately.
Dansby Swanson hit a three-run homer in the third for the Braves, who have won two of three in the four-game series.
The punchless Mets managed only two hits — an infield single by pinchhitting pitcher Jerad Eickhoff in the fifth and a twoout double by James McCann in the ninth.
Stroman, who lasted at least six innings in each of his previous eight starts, walked one in a hitless first but left after throwing just three pitches to Austin Riley in the second.
Morton (7-3) became the 19th active pitcher to reach 100 wins and the 630th to do so in big league history. He hit the milestone 13 years, 8 days days after getting his first career win for the Braves.
In between stints with Atlanta, the veteran righthander notched 89 wins for Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Houston and Tampa Bay.