Cole gets the win despite a shaky outing
DETROIT — Shoddy command of his fastball and an inability to gauge the Tigers’ approach to his arsenal were Gerrit Cole’s undoing during an abbreviated outing at Comerica Park on Wednesday.
Cole struck out nine across five taxing innings. He scattered three hits and allowed two runs and was still able to earn the victory in the Astros’ 5-4 win. But the four walks he yielded were his most since July 14 and one shy of matching his season high.
“I was struggling to string consistently good pitches together and struggling to sync up with trying to identify what they were trying to do,” Cole said. “It seemed like the competitive at-bats that ended up in walks, I made quality pitches in situations where they weren’t going to be aggressive, and in situations where I anticipated them being aggressive, I wasn’t able to execute the pitch that I needed to.”
Cole (14-5) threw 57 fastballs and got just eight called strikes. A 27-pitch second inning cratered any progress the pitcher hoped to make. Blame was not his alone. Carlos Correa committed an error on Mikie Mahtook’s leadoff ground ball. Cole followed with two quick outs. Fifteen extra pitches were required to collect the third, perhaps the difference later in another inning of work.
The righthander walked two of the first four hitters he faced in the third inning. Mahtook drove a run-scoring single to chase one home. Catcher James
McCann launched an oppositefield solo home run in the fourth.
Cole had no qualms about his pitch execution. He served McCann a 97.3 mph fastball on the outer half. The pitcher offered only a literal tip of his cap when it was brought up in a postgame interview. “He hung in there,” manager
A.J. Hinch said. “He never broke.”
With his nine strikeouts, Cole regained the American League lead from Justin Verlander. Cole has 260 strikeouts, two more than his teammate.
Morton’s next start pushed to Saturday
In order to provide Charlie Morton some extra rest, the Astros are pushing back his scheduled start in their upcoming series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Morton will operate on two extra days of rest and start Saturday at Minute Maid Park. Dallas Keuchel will start Friday, and Justin Verlander is scheduled to throw Sunday.
Morton, 34, is approaching career highs in starts and innings pitched. He was placed on the 10-day disabled list on Aug. 30 with right shoulder discomfort and skipped one turn in the rotation.
Morton returned to pitch five innings of two-run ball in the Astros’ 5-3 win over the Red Sox on Saturday. His start against Arizona will be his 28th of the season, one shy of the career high he set in 2011.
Morton threw 1712⁄3 innings that year, establishing another career high. He sits at 157 innings after his most recent start in Boston.
The maneuvering means Keuchel is tentatively scheduled to start the series finale against Seattle on Sept. 19. The next day is a day off. Morton would ostensibly start Sept. 21 against the Angels — again on extra rest.
Buies Creek wins Carolina crown
Chuckie Robinson’s walk-off sacrifice fly in the 11th inning handed the high Class A Buies Creek Astros the Carolina League championship on Tuesday night.
Hurricane Florence’s impending landfall in North Carolina forced the league to scrap the original three-game championship series, rendering Tuesday’s game a winner-take-all affair. Jake Adams hit an eighthinning solo home run to tie the game before Robinson’s heroics.
Buies Creek is managed by former Astros third baseman
Morgan Ensberg. Next season, the club is set to move to Fayetteville, N.C., where the Astros have signed a 30-year lease agreement.
Astros affiilates have won two championships this year — Class A short-season Tri City took the Penn League title last week — and Class AAA Fresno is playing for the Pacific Coast League title.