Gerrit Cole’s latest outing at Yankee Stadium followed an all-too-familiar script: trouble early, loud contact, and balls leaving the yard before he had time to settle in.
On Saturday afternoon, Francisco Lindor jumped on him right away in the middle game of the Subway Series. After taking a first-pitch fastball for a strike and passing on a high-and-inside heater, the Mets shortstop turned a center-cut changeup above the knees into a 385-foot homer to right field. Three pitches in, the Mets were rolling toward a 12-2 win, and Cole was already in a hole.
The damage didn’t stop there. Cole surrendered two more homers and finished with three allowed over 4 1/3 innings, giving him seven home runs across his last 11 1/3 innings. That’s the most he’s ever given up over a two-start span in his 13 major league seasons.
Cole didn’t dance around the issue afterward.
“Just a straightforward observation is that the hitters are seeing the ball well and being able to deliver good strikes to it, regardless of the pitch type or really the location,” Cole said.
The rough patch has arrived fast. Last Sunday in San Diego, Cole was tagged for a season-high four homers over seven innings in a loss to the Padres, opening that start with back-to-back-to-back shots from Fernando Tatis Jr., Jake Cronenworth and Manny Machado.
That stretch looks especially jarring because of what came before it. Over a seven-start run, Cole had allowed just two homers in 42 innings. But for the season, his 1.56 homers per nine innings is a personal high since 2020.
“I think it’s something that we’ve got to figure out for sure, and it’s just one of those times in the season I think you’ve got to start making adjustments,” he said. “Sometimes adjustments are hard, but that’s the demand of the game. You’ve got to find a way to get through it.”
Since coming back from Tommy John surgery in May, Cole has spent more of the season in solid shape than not. He’s 8-9 with a 3.67 ERA, and he’s given up 26 homers in 115.1 innings over 18 starts.
There’s still time left, but not much. The regular season ends two weeks from Sunday, and Cole is lined up for two more outings: one next weekend in Arizona and another the following weekend, when the first-place Rays come to town for a four-game set over three days.
“Things can turn around quickly,” Cole said. “You take it one game at a time.
I’m not looking at the next two weeks. You never really know how close you are.
Sometimes it’s really small things, but you’ve got to get after it.”
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