{"id":34850,"date":"2022-08-04T02:37:50","date_gmt":"2022-08-04T02:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/gerrit-coles-dud-adds-to-growing-angst-around-yankees-rotation\/"},"modified":"2022-08-04T02:37:50","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T02:37:50","slug":"gerrit-coles-dud-adds-to-growing-angst-around-yankees-rotation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/gerrit-coles-dud-adds-to-growing-angst-around-yankees-rotation\/","title":{"rendered":"Gerrit Cole&#8217;s dud adds to growing angst around Yankees rotation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n<div class=\"inline-module inline-module--columnist inline-module--author\">\n<div class=\"inline-module--author__img\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>It was a beautiful afternoon, bright sunshine and blue skies, a perfect setting for baseball, maybe the perfect milieu for the Yankees to bid adieu to an old friend named Vin Scully.  These are the kinds of days perfectly designed for the baseball romantics and their paeans, poems and purple prose.<\/p>\n<p>Grab a hot dog.  Sip a cold beer.  Slather yourself in sunscreen \u2026<\/p>\n<p>Well, it was a good plan, anyway.<\/p>\n<p>Seven batters into the game, the Mariners had six runs and the 42,169 who&#8217;d opted for a businessman&#8217;s holiday at Yankee Stadium were already plenty ornery.  And with cause.  That was the artist formerly known as Gerrit Cole getting lit up.  And Luis Castillo, the center of so many Yankees-fan fantasies these past few weeks, was lined up, six runs to the good.<\/p>\n<p>It ended 7-3.  Bad day all around.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s hard to believe how it blows up so quick,\u201d Cole said later.<\/p>\n<p>Cole was probably one batter from an early shower, but did recover to eat six innings and keep the Mariners off the board the rest of the way.  \u201cYou try to be excellent.  But the game tells us when we&#8217;re not.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Later, he added a curious turn of phrase that someone ought to immediately slap on a T-shirt: \u201cWe&#8217;ve gotten baseballed.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/08\/080322Yankees23CW.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Yankees\" class=\"wp-image-23323422\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/08\/080322Yankees23CW.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/08\/080322Yankees23CW.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/08\/080322Yankees23CW.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"\/><figcaption>Gerrit Cole allowed three home runs in the Yankees&#8217; loss to the Mariners on Wednesday.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Charles Wenzelberg\/New York Post<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>You can take that in any context you&#8217;d like.  Cole, for instance, still spends most of his days as a commanding pitcher with superlative stuff.  He has also had five different starts this year in which he has surrendered at least five runs, including the last two.  That&#8217;s getting baseballed.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignright\">\n\t<\/aside>\n<p>He tried to honor his between-starts strategy of trusting his instincts, yet those instincts urged him to eschew his 99-mph gas and throw first-inning sliders to both Eugenio Suarez and Jarred Kelenic;  Suarez and Kelenic made both disappear.  That&#8217;s getting baseballed.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s go with the loose translation that getting baseballed means the game eventually finds you, no matter how well you&#8217;re playing.  That can apply to an individual.  And it can apply to a team.  The Yankees \u2014 12-15 over their last 27 games \u2014 have been getting baseballed at a lot higher clip than they were used to across the season&#8217;s first 3 \u00bd months.<\/p>\n<p>And what&#8217;s notable \u2014 that&#8217;s the kindest way to describe it \u2014 is how the aspect of the Yankees that was cruising along at an almost historic pace, their starting rotation, is suddenly getting nicked and sliced \u200b\u200band cut up.  It&#8217;s not anything resembling DEFCON 2, not quite yet.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"678\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/08\/080322Yankees61CW.jpg?resize=1024%2C678&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Yankees\" class=\"wp-image-23324565\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/08\/080322Yankees61CW.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/08\/080322Yankees61CW.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/08\/080322Yankees61CW.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"\/><figcaption>Gerrit Cole and Kyle Higashioka talk between innings.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Charles Wenzelberg\/New York Post<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But what was once a reliable everyday strength has become something else.  Cole&#8217;s ERA took a huge hit Wednesday, jumping from 3.30 to 3.56.  Jameson Taillon&#8217;s is 6.25 in his last eight starts after he was pasted Tuesday.  Luis Severino is on the 60-day injured list and his replacement, Domingo German, is pitching to a 6.39 ERA.  Nestor Cortes is still a feel-good gem of a story, but he&#8217;s looking at an innings drag at some point.<\/p>\n<p>And Jordan Montgomery is a Cardinal.<\/p>\n<p>Of the flurry of trade-deadline maneuvers Brian Cashman pulled off, that was a genuine head-scratcher.  Harrison Bader, acquired for Montgomery, is a Bronxville kid with a dynamic glove, but he&#8217;s hurt right now and has a career OPS+ of 99. Plus, the Yankees, when healthy, have more than enough outfielders.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe the Yankees had already determined that Montgomery wasn&#8217;t going to be part of their postseason rotation, but he is a durable innings-eater at a time when that would be an especially useful asset.  Cashman did bring in Frankie Montas, with the expectation that his 4-9 recoord is a product of pitching for a dreadful Athletics team.  He also has to hope that Montas&#8217; jarring home-road splits \u2014 he pitched to a 2.36 ERA in Oakland&#8217;s spacious RingCentral Coliseum, and 5.01 everywhere else \u2014 are a mere statistical anomaly.<\/p>\n<p>(You know who had similar splits when he was imported from Oakland to New York in 2017? Sonny Gray. Hey, I&#8217;m just the messenger.)<\/p>\n<p>Look, the likelihood of the Yankees&#8217; starters being as dominant in August as they were in June was always remote.  The game doesn&#8217;t allow it.  And nobody seems especially worried about Cole, which is good, because much of what the Yankees hope to accomplish in October is contingent on him being a legit ace.  Which he was for five innings Wednesday.  But he pitched six.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere&#8217;s some wonky weirdness attached to that,\u201d Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.<\/p>\n<p>Is it really weirder than trading away a reliable, proven starter for no apparent reason?  Yankees fans may have to ask themselves at some point if they aren&#8217;t the ones being baseballed.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>    .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was a beautiful afternoon, bright sunshine and blue skies, a perfect setting for baseball, maybe the perfect milieu for the Yankees to bid adieu to an old friend named Vin Scully. These are the kinds of days perfectly designed for the baseball romantics and their paeans, poems and purple prose. Grab a hot dog. &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/gerrit-coles-dud-adds-to-growing-angst-around-yankees-rotation\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Gerrit Cole&#8217;s dud adds to growing angst around Yankees rotation<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[6],"tags":[2545,11762,661,1002,3443,307],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":51885,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/yankees-gerrit-coles-latest-outing-ruined-by-big-inning\/","url_meta":{"origin":34850,"position":0},"title":"Yankees&#8217; Gerrit Cole&#8217;s latest outing ruined by big inning","date":"August 21, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"A big inning did in Gerrit Cole again. It wasn't the six-run nightmare of two weeks ago, or the five-run frame from the start before that. But it was enough to send the reeling Yankees to a 5-2 loss to the Blue Jays on Saturday at the Stadium. Cole was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Yankees starting pitcher Gerrit Cole walks off after the fifth inning against the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium, Saturday, Aug.  20, 2022.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/08\/20220820_YankeesBlueJays024CS.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17815,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/yankees-make-statement-as-they-flex-their-muscles-on-red-sox\/","url_meta":{"origin":34850,"position":1},"title":"Yankees make statement as they flex their muscles on Red Sox","date":"July 18, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Yankees were salty. They'd had a lousy week, dropping a couple of games in godforsaken Boston, losing two out of three to the godawful Reds, losing a game that should have been virtually unloseable to the Red Sox on Friday. It added up to five losses in six games.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"The Yankees celebrate during their win over the Red Sox.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/07\/071722Yankees120MF.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35108,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/yankees-ace-gerrit-cole-blasted-by-first-inning-homers-in-7-3-loss-to-ms\/","url_meta":{"origin":34850,"position":2},"title":"Yankees ace Gerrit Cole blasted by first-inning homers in 7-3 loss to M&#8217;s","date":"August 4, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The rubber match of this three-game series was a showdown between two aces in their respective rotations. For the New York Yankees, Gerrit Cole needed a great start, and that did not come to pass in any way, shape, or form. He gave up three home runs in the top\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17633,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/yankees-end-first-half-with-series-win-over-red-sox\/","url_meta":{"origin":34850,"position":3},"title":"Yankees end first half with series win over Red Sox","date":"July 18, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"NEW YORK -- For the second time in 24 hours, the Yankees saw a series of crooked numbers lining the video screen above center field at Yankee Stadium, offering an invitation to begin their All-Star break a few innings early. They've earned this respite, no doubt, while reminding anyone within\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/08\/080322Yankees23CW.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1024","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34850"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34850\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}