Cole’s streak stopped at 20 in Yanks’ loss to Braves
ATLANTA » Ian Anderson dazzled in his big league debut, holding the Yankees hitless into the sixth inning and ending Gerrit Cole’s 20-game winning streak as the Atlanta Braves beat New York 5-1 Wednesday to open a doubleheader.
Ronald Acuña Jr. celebrated his return to the lineup by leading off with a 473-foot drive against Cole.
Anderson (1-0) gave a depleted Atlanta rotation a huge boost. The 22-year-old right-hander, the overall third pick in the 2016 draft, didn’t allow a hit until Luke Voit connected for his team-leading 11th homer with one out in the sixth.
That was the only hit Anderson allowed in six innings. He struck out six and walked two before Shane Greene closed in the seventh.
Anderson was promoted to the majors on Tuesday before his scheduled debut was postponed because of rain.
Dansby Swanson and Marcell Ozuna also homered off Cole (4-1), who suffered his first loss in the regular season since May 22, 2019, with Houston.
Cole was trying to become the first AL pitcher to win 21 straight regular-season decisions. The all-time record is 24 by Carl Hubbell, followed by Roy Face (22) and Cole, Roger Clemens, Jake Arrieta and Rube Marquard tied at 20.
Cole had been unbeaten in 28 consecutive regular-season starts — Clemens
Houston Seattle Texas Los Angeles
Wednesday’s games
Chicago White Sox 10, Pittsburgh 3 Atlanta 5, N.Y. Yankees 1, 7 innings, 1st game
Boston at Toronto
Baltimore at Tampa Bay Chicago Cubs at Detroit Minnesota at Cleveland
N.Y. Yankees at Atlanta, 2nd game Oakland at Texas
Kansas City at St. Louis
Seattle at San Diego, ppd.
Thursday’s games
holds the mark with 30. Cole’s only loss in 15 months had come in the World Series opener last year with Houston against Washington.
The Yankees newcomer gave up five runs on five hits with nine strikeouts in fiveplus innings. He was lifted after giving up a double to Freddie Freeman and a walk to Ozuna with no outs in the sixth. Nick Markakis hit an RBI double off Luis Cessa.
Acuña pulled a 97 mph fastball into the left-field seats to open the first. It was Acuña’s longest homer and the longest by any Braves batter at Truist Park, which opened in 2017.
Swanson hit a two-run homer after Cole walked Acuña in the third inning. With two outs in the inning, Ozuna crushed his eighth homer 469 feet to left-center.
The Yankees were playing the first of three doubleheaders in five days. They play twinbills at Yankee Stadium against the Mets on Friday and Sunday. The Mets will be the designated home team in the second game of each doubleheader, with the Yankees hitting first, as they are makeup games originally planned for the Mets’ Citi Field.
17 12 11 10
14 19 18 22
.548 4 .387 9 .379 9 .313 111⁄2
Seattle (Kikuchi 0-2) at San Diego (Richards 1-1), 4:10 p.m.
Boston (Mazza 0-1) at Toronto (Ryu 2-1), 6:37 p.m.
A’s (Bassitt 2-1) at Texas (Lyles 1-3), 6:37 p.m.
Baltimore (Means 0-2) at Tampa Bay (Yarbrough 0-2), 6:40 p.m. Minnesota (Dobnak 5-1) at Detroit (Boyd 0-4), 7:10 p.m.
Atlanta Miami Philadelphia New York Washington
Chicago St. Louis Milwaukee Cincinnati Pittsburgh
Los Angeles San Diego Colorado Giants