Gerrit Cole makes his bid at perfection, keeps the Yankees' good times rolling
NEW YORK — Gerrit Cole kept alive the spirit of one-upmanship among Yankees starting pitchers, though his Friday fate was similar to that of his predecessor.
One night after Jameson Taillon had his perfect-game bid broken up in the eighth inning, Cole retired the first 20 Tigers he faced at Yankee Stadium.
Jonathan Schoop snuck a single through the middle infield with two outs in the seventh inning, yet the crowd of 42,026 nonetheless began chanting Cole's name – a moment the right-hander called "pretty magical" following New York’s 13-0 win.
According to Elias Sports Bureau, this was the first time in Major League Baseball's expansion era (since 1961) that a team had pitchers throw six-plus perfect innings to open consecutive games.
Meanwhile, Aaron Judge heard the chants of "M-V-P" during a four-hit night that included his 20th home run of the season. Anthony Rizzo (12th of the year), Jose Trevino (fourth) and Matt Carpenter (fourth) also went deep.
As if those highlights were not enough to excite the Bronx faithful, lefty Manny Bañuelos pitched the final two innings in relief of Cole, making his Yankees debut 14 years after the club originally signed him from the Mexican League.
Here are the top takeaways from Friday.
MORE YANKEES: Josh Donaldson returns, Aaron Judge named AL Player of the Month for May
In-house pitching competition
Wednesday, Nestor Cortes told Suzyn Waldman on the Yankees' radio pregame show that his recent eight-inning outings had spurred some competition among the starting staff.
Cortes' start that night was pushed back a day because of thunderstorms, but he still continued a run of sterling starts by New York's rotation during the tea's four-game win streak:
► Jordan Montgomery vs. Angels (Tuesday): 7 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 4 K
► Cortes vs. Angels (Thursday afternoon): 7 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K
► Taillon vs. Angels (Thursday evening): 8 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 5 K
► Cole vs. Tigers (Friday): 7 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 9 K
“Anytime you’re a close-knit group like those guys are, you’re challenging each other and learning from one another,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said after Cole improved to 5-1 on the season. “That environment is one that you have a better chance to thrive in.”
For Cole, though, “he’s always going to have those expectations and whatnot,” Boone added. That kind of follows him all the time. But I’ve felt like really since spring training and again, even early in the season, when he didn’t get results those first couple [games], I felt like his stuff was in a really good place.”
One of those early outings was an April 19 clunker in Detroit, where Cole needed 68 pitches to get through 1⅔ innings (with five walks). Compare that to Friday, when he threw 73 strikes out of his 102 pitches.
“I thought we had a good mix and good execution of, like, 3½ pitches,” Cole said, noting that he may have thrown one too many changeups to Schoop.
His cutter “was good; kept them off-balance a little bit and got a couple quick outs. Wish I’d got a couple more with it.”
Carpenter keeps hammering away
After becoming the the third player to have his first three Yankee hits be homers, Matt Carpenter laid down a bunt single along the third-base line in the fourth inning, which bounced off the bag against the Tigers' over-shifted defense.
"As I was coming up to the plate, I saw A.J. [Hinch], their manager, give the four-finger sign like he was going to go with the four-man outfield," Carpenter said. "Initially, Javy Báez was at third guarding [the line], but then once they got a strike, there was nobody within a mile of that area."
Then in the fifth, his two-run shot put him in company with joined Dave Kingman (1977) and Eric Hinske (2009) as the only players to have four of his first five Yankee hits go for home runs.
The Manny Bañuelos journey
Bañuelos spent seven seasons in the Yankees' farm system – missing 2013 due to Tommy John surgery – before being traded to Atlanta, where he made his big-league debut in July 2015.
After seven games with the Braves, he did not return to the majors until 2019 with the White Sox, and that season was a leadup to two years abroad, pitching in China and Mexico.
His first outing in pinstripes came “later than expected," Boone said, adding that Bañuelos "has never given up and never [lost] sight of this being what he wanted to do and where he wanted to do it. You know, to see people persevere through a lot of different things is special to witness."
“I’ve never been around a guy that has had that type of journey to make it all the way back and fulfill his dream," Cole said. "So really, that was the coolest part of the night, I think.”
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This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Gerrit Cole bids at perfection, keeps NY Yankees' good times rolling
