Although it took Gerrit Cole a while to get into a rhythm against the Blue Jays on Monday night, he found it in the middle of the second and did not lose it. Back by a few homers from his catcher, Kyle Higashioka, Cole recovered nicely and led the Yankees to a 3-1 victory in Dunedin (Toronto’s current home-to-home).
It was a bit of an ominous start for Cole, who may have just gotten used to a heap not his favorite. After a perfect first innings by Robbie Ray, Cole ended up in the home shift when Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit back-to-back hits through the right side. Bichette’s were cracked, but Guerrero’s was an 81.1 mph output speed exhaust that just turned through. It happens.
Bichette moves to third place, and during the bat of Randal Grichuk, Cole jumps a wild pitch that blocks Higashioka from keeping Bichette on the hot corner. However, Guerrero was still progressing, and it might have cost Cole a doubles basis, as Grichuk immediately missed a role. Only one out could be scored, and Bichette scored the score to 1-0, Toronto.
The second did not go much easier for Cole, who defeated Lourdes Gurriel Jr. walk and gave up Rowdy Tellez’s. long awaited first hit of the season to put runners in first and second place, with no one out. I suspect it only made him angry because he immediately hit the next three batsmen in a row to shorten the rally. The rookie Josh Palacios just looked hopeless:
Meanwhile, Ray surprisingly halted the Yankees series. In four innings, they did not have a single hit against veteran Southpaw, who made his Toronto debut this season.
In the fifth, however, Ray ran out of fuel. Rougned Odor smoked a pitch along the right field line for the Yankees’ first hit of the ball game. It was hit hard enough that Odor had to be content with a single, but thanks to Higashioka it did not matter. Cole’s longtime partner gave him the lead with an explosion of 416 feet:
That would yield some great results as a personal catcher, right?
The end of the second round was the start of a remarkable run for Cole, who retired all 15 batsmen he faced after the Tellez single. It was as if he had taken out all his early frustrations on the poor Jays and made them almost untouchable with a variety of pitches.
By the end of the day, Cole’s pitch looked much better than it should have been: six innings, three strokes, one run, one step and eight strokes. After working in the first two frames, he became much more efficient and stretched his 98 stands until the end of the sixth.
It’s not mentioned at his best outings this year, but it’s definitely the type of bait like Cole would be proud of afterwards. He overcame a slow start to give his team some good innings after all, and somehow elicited a dominant series anyway.
Pitchers of Cole’s talent does not grow on trees. Enjoy him.
Higashioka’s day would have been a great day with the designated dancer and Cole’s recovery, but he added the icing on the cake at the start of the eighth. With Ryan Borucki now in the game for Toronto, Higashioka has become a “Higgy Pop” again:
I do not know what the country Canada did to deserve Higgy’s wrath, but it must have been something. His three-homer game in 2020 also came against Toronto, and YES provided this extra amusing thing:
Higgy has five homers in his last 14 batsmen against the Blue Jays.
Jeff Quagliata @yestoresearch 13 April 2021
The Yankees’ bullpen did a good job of folding this game neatly as well. Justin Wilson and Darren O’Day extended the Blue Jays’ series outs to 20 in a row to Marcus Semien’s eighth single. Bichette then walked to four stands to briefly cause some concern, but the sidewinder hit Guerrero to finish his night.
Aroldis Chapman entered for the save in the ninth time and Grichuk greeted him with a double play that gave the Blue Jays some cracks with the run on the board. Luckily for the Yankees, Chapman got Cavan Biggio to fly out, incited Gurriel and a fairly generous strike three on Tellez from referee Hunter Wendelstedt:
Uh, well, um, the Yankees win!
The Bombers will turn their winning streak into a trilogy in Dunedin tomorrow night. Jameson Taillon will battle it out against Jays bait Hyun Jin Ryu at 19:07 ET.
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