Cole hurt as Yankee skid hits four games
BLUE JAYS 5
YANKEES 1
As Gerrit Cole slowly walked off the mound with a trainer next to him in the fourth inning Tuesday night, it felt like Yankee Stadium deflated. With their ace injured, the Bombers went down quietly to the Blue Jays, falling 5-1 for their fourth straight loss.
Afterwards, they could only hold their breath, hopeful that Cole, who left with what he described as “tightness,” and a “cramp,” in his left (landing leg ) hamstring, caught it before it could turn into a long-term injury and force him to miss his next start or more.
“I’m obviously disappointed about the outcome of today, but I kind of want to just reserve judgment until we see how this thing kind of reacts over the next 24-36 hours,” Cole said. “I just want to make sure that I am good, if I’m good, or if I need a few extra days.
“I was sitting out there for a couple pitches, just kind of weighing the pros and cons and I just wasn’t quite sure I was gonna be able to get through the inning and get some treatment on it to get back out,” Cole said. “So unfortunately, I just had to pull the plug.”
The Yankees are not sending Cole for an MRI or testing on the leg, they are going to wait and see how he feels in the next day or two.
It’s a big blow as the Yankees’ are desperately trying to keep their playoff hopes alive. The fourgame losing streak is part of a 2-8 stretch on the heels of a 13-game winning streak for the Yankees (78-60). The Rays moved to 9.5 games ahead of the Bombers in the American League East with 24 games to go, but by beating the Red Sox Tuesday night Tampa Bay helped the Yankees maintain their half-game lead over Boston in the Wild Card race. The Blue Jays (75-62), however, pulled within two games of the Red Sox in the second Wild Card spot.
With their offense struggling and their bullpen having taken injury hits with the loss of Jonathan Loaisiga and Zack Britton, the prospect of not having their ace down the stretch is ominous.
Cole, the front runner for the American League Cy Young winner, did not look right from the start. His second pitch of the night sailed to the backstop, but he had good velocity and he battled. His fastball touched 100 miles an hour, it was his command that was bothering him.
Cole left having allowed three earned runs — including a solo shot by Blue Jays designated hitter Alejandro Kirk — on five hits and two walks. He struck out two.
Cole said he may have “over extended,” on a pitch in the fourth inning. Recognizing that he was in a jam and was struggling to get out of the inning, Cole called for the trainer himself.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said they are glad he recognized the situation.
“Absolutely, hopefully, we avoided something more serious,” Boone said, “but again, we’ll have to see.”
Even if Cole has avoided missing time, the Yankees offense has to get back into gear if they are going to hold on to their postseason hopes.
In their 13-game winning streak last month, the Bombers hit .256/.345/.495 with 25 home runs and averaged 5.77 runs per game. In the 10 games since then, the Yankees lineup has gone 67-for-326 (.205) with 17 extra-base hits, including nine home runs. They are averaging 2.3 runs per game in this streak.
The Yankees have not had an extra-base hit since Sunday when Gary Sanchez crushed a seventh-inning home run. They also have not had a walk in the last two games.
Tuesday night, Long Island native, and former Mets pitcher, Steven Matz held the Yankees off for six innings allowing one run on seven hits (all singles). He did not walk a batter and struck out six. The Bombers scored a run on Anthony Rizzo’s single driving in Andrew Velazquez in the third inning, snapping a 14-inning scoreless drought.
“Unfortunately, we just haven’t been playing good baseball this last week or so,” said Brett Gardner, who had two hits Tuesday. “I know, for a few weeks, even a month or two, we were playing much better baseball. Everybody talks about the winning streak, obviously, we played pretty well during those two weeks. Since then it’s just been hard to get things going. We’re not doing a good job of picking each other up and we just need to be better.”