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 frigid night in Detroit, where the game time temperature was 43 degrees with 19 mph winds, allowing two runs and five (five!) walks in just 1 ⅔ innings at Comerica Park.
After three starts, Cole’s ERA is 6.35.
Handed a 3-0 lead when the Yankees scored twice in the first inning and once in the second, Cole struck out three of the four batters he faced in the bottom of the first before crumbling in the second.
During a lengthy top of the second, Cole took the unusual step of throwing pitches in front of the Yankee dugout while Detroit right-hander Will Vest was warming up on the mound.
He allowed a leadoff single to Miguel Cabrera and then got Spencer Torkelson on a liner to third. Cole then went to full counts to the seventh, eighth and ninth batters in the order and walked all three.
The third walk of the inning — following a visit from pitching coach Matt Blake — was to Willi Castro and forced in a run to make it 3-1. Robbie Grossman also got to a full count before hitting a sacrifice fly to cut the Yankees’ lead to 3-2 and Cole then walked Austin Meadows — again on a full count — to load the bases again and knock Cole out of the game.
He threw 46 pitches in the second, finishing the outing with 68.
Clarke Schmidt came in and got Jonathan Schoop to end the inning.
Before the game, Aaron Boone said “Gerrit is in a good spot. After his first four hitters of the season against Boston, I feel like he’s thrown the ball well.”
