DETROIT — First the good news: Gerrit Cole didn’t allow a home run in the first inning for the first time this season.
Everything else? Everything else was bad.
Cole couldn’t get out of the second inning on a cold night in Detroit, where the game temperature was 43 degrees and 19 mph winds, allowing for two runs and five (five!) walks in just 1 ⅔ innings at Comerica Park.
After three starts, Cole’s ERA is 6.35.
With the Yankees scoring twice in the first inning and once in the second, Cole took a 3-0 lead and hit three of the four batters he faced in the first inning before collapsing in the second.
During a lengthy top of the second, Cole made the unusual move of throwing pitches in front of the Yankee dugout while Detroit right-hander Will Vest warmed up on the mound.
He allowed Miguel Cabrera a leadoff single and then took Spencer Torkelson to third place on a liner. Cole then walked the seventh, eighth, and ninth batters in sequence to the full count, walking all three.
Gerrit Cole AP
The third walk of the inning – after a visit from pitching coach Matt Blake – went to Willi Castro and was forced in a run to make it 3-1. Robbie Grossman also came on a full count before hitting a sacrifice fly to cut the Yankees’ lead to 3-2, and Cole then went to Austin Meadows – again on a full count – to reload the bases and Cole throw out of the game.
He threw 46 pitches in the second and finished the outing with 68.
Clarke Schmidt came in and got Jonathan Schoop to finish the inning.
Before the game, Aaron Boone said: “Gerrit is in a good place. After scoring his first four goals of the season against Boston, I feel like he threw the ball well.”