The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Cole wins matchup of aces
Bieber allows two homers; Tribe strikes out 11 times
The marquee pitching matchup met high expectations. And as usual, Gerrit Cole exceeded them for the Yankees.
“He answered the bell again,” New York manager Aaron Boone said.
Cole was one pitch better than Shane Bieber in a heavyweight matchup of two of baseball’s best and Rougned Odor and Aaron Hicks homered off the Tribe’s Cy Young winner in the fifth inning, giving New York a 2-1 win over the Indians on April 24.
Cole (3-1) struck out 11 and allowed three hits in seven innings — he retired the final 11 batters he faced — to beat Bieber (2-2) in a rematch of their meeting in last year’s playoffs.
Cole’s 50 strikeouts in his first five starts are the most for any pitcher in New York’s storied history.
“He was terrific in obviously a game where we needed him to be really, really good,” Boone said. “Really strong outing by our ace.”
Bieber fanned nine — the first time he hasn’t reached double digits in five starts — and tied Hall of Famer Randy Johnson’s record with his 17th straight start of at least eight strikeouts.
The 25-year-old righthander allowed just three hits, but two were homers
while throwing a 119 pitches.
“I thought he pitched his heart out,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “He gave up two solo homers in the fifth, one on the fastball he didn’t locate, another one on a changeup. That was pretty good hitting. But I mean, he fought
careerhigh
his command at times, especially early, but he competed so much and golly, that was a pretty damn good effort.”
After Cole was pulled following his 111th pitch, Justin Wilson got two outs in the eighth. With closer Aroldis Chapman unavailable after pitching three
times in four days, Jonathan Loaisiga came on and finished up for his first career save.
New York’s bullpen has pitched 9 1/3 scoreless innings in the series.
The Yankees won their third straight in the fourgame series after stumbling into Progressive Field with the AL’s worst record.
Two of the game’s premiere right-handers, Cole and Bieber traded pitch for pitch, strike for strike and strikeout for strikeout over seven innings.
Boone didn’t detect any extra fire in Cole even though he was facing Bieber.