Unbeatable feeling
Even at less than his best, Cole still spins 7 shutout innings for 2-1 lead
NEW YORK — Wait, Gerrit Cole is human?
Sort of. He bleeds and all, but when it comes to being a Major League Baseball pitcher, we treat the man as if he is a machine.
The Astros’ righthander has been so ridiculously good for so ridiculously long that on Tuesday afternoon, when he was merely pretty good for pretty long, some might have wondered if something was wrong.
But by the time his day was over, Cole had stymied the Yankees, holding them to zero runs, while giving up just four hits, with seven strikeouts in seven innings.
Once again, the Astros rode his strong start to a victory, taking a 2-1 lead over the Yankees in the best-of-seven American League Championship Series with a 4-1 win at Yankee Stadium.
Though Cole matched a career-high with five walks and his astonishing MLB-record streak of games with 10 or more strikeouts ended at 11 (the previous mark was just eight games) the Astros came away with the 15th
straight win in a Cole start.
“It was different, but it shows how elite he is as an ace,” shortstop Carols Correa said. “He didn’t have his command, obviously we all know that, but he still managed to go seven strong (innings) with no runs. It doesn’t get any better.”
Funny thing is, as factual as it is that it doesn’t get any better than holding an opponent scoreless, Cole’s standards are so high, and his outings have been so outstanding this season that he expects better. Nay, guarantees better.
He’ll take the zero runs, but not the way he got there. All five of his walks and two of the four hits he allowed came with two outs, as he wasn’t as crisp closing out innings as he has been during his historic run.
“Sometimes it comes and goes, and tonight I was able to make pitches when I needed to,” said Cole, who has allowed only one run in three starts this postseason. “And next time out, I'm pretty confident I'll be better.
“I just try to take it one start at a time. Obviously tonight, fastball command was a bit of a struggle, and for some reason it wasn't early in the inning, it was more late in the inning. I don't really have a reason for that right now, but I know it will be better next time.”
The next time could be in Game 7 of the ALCS at Minute Maid Park on Sunday. Or it might be in Game 1 or 2 of the World Series next week in Houston.
Cole, whose 48 walks this season are the fewest ever for a pitcher with 300 strikeouts, had not walked more than three batters in a game this season, and he hadn’t reached that number since July 28.
Tuesday, he issued a couple of semi-intentional passes because he didn’t want to give in to dangerous hitters and, just as importantly, he was confident that he could make the pitches to keep the Yankees from taking advantage.
One such instance was in the fifth inning, with the Astros holding a 2-0 lead, thanks to solo home runs by Jose Altuve and Josh Reddick.
With two outs in the frame, Cole, having found his command, threw what he termed a “really good slider” to Edwin Encarnacion, who sent it on a rope to center field. Cole, a California native, said Encarnacion’s swing on that ball was “just fab.”
Up next for the Yankees was Gleyber Torres, who entered the game hitting a team-leading .409 in the postseason.
“(I) fell behind Gleyber … wasn't going to mess around there, just on to the next one,” Cole said. “That's pitching. Gleyber has been as hot as anybody.”
With the next pitch, Cole retired Didi Gregorius on a deep fly ball to right. Cole then went through the sixth and seventh innings, three-up-three-down, looking more like the guy the Astros have become accustomed to seeing.
“I was telling the guys that when he pitches, we know we have a 90-something percent chance that we’re going to win that game, or it feels like that, because he has been amazing for the last 3-4 months,” Correa said. “He’s been unhittable … he’s nasty and his confidence is off the charts.”
Only four times in Astros’ history has a pitcher gone seven or more innings in a postseason start, and allowed no runs with four or fewer hits. Two of those times were in the ALDS against Tampa Bay a week and a half ago, when Cole and Justin Verlander did it on back-to-back days.
“I think he's the best pitcher in baseball right now,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “His competition is right next to him in the clubhouse (in Verlander). They're certainly a good pair.
“But Gerrit is locked in. And to see him do it on the big stage in a playoff game with the magnitude of this game, it was pretty awesome.”
In the slew of playoff games at the many incarnations of Yankee Stadium, which opened in 1923, the year the Yankees won the first of their 27 World Series titles, Cole’s Game 3 numbers have been put up by opposing pitchers just three times, the first by Hall of Famer Warren Spahn in 1958.
For Cole to do it without his best stuff is remarkable. And expected.
He is, after all, the Astros’ pitching machine.