The Yankees might be returning home for Game 3 of a tied-up ALCS, but there is a buzzsaw waiting for them on the pitcher’s mound in the form of Astros ace Gerrit Cole.
As they attempt to regain an advantage in the best-of-seven series following Carlos Correa’s walk-off home run in Game 2 on Monday night, the Yankees are going to have to figure out a way to pull out a victory against a pitcher that is in the midst of a hot streak for the ages.
Cole has simply been unstoppable since May 27, going 16-0 in 22 starts to end the regular season while posting a 1.78 ERA and striking out 226 batters in just 146.1 innings of work.
His scorching stuff carried over right into the playoffs, winning his two starts in the ALDS against the Tampa Bay Rays. He allowed a single run in 15.2 innings while striking out 25.
As I noted yesterday during my breakdown of Aaron Boone’s bullpen dependency: “Not only was this the most strikeouts in ALDS history, but Cole became just the sixth pitcher in MLB history (Bob Gibson on three-separate occasions, Mike Mussina, Sandy Koufax, Curt Schilling, and Bill Dinneen) to record 25 or more strikeouts during a single postseason series.”
Now with an 18-game winning streak in his pocket, Cole is just one victory away from tying Major League Baseball’s all-time record for most consecutive wins by a pitcher in a single season.
The Yankees had marginal success against him during their only meeting in 2019 — granted, it came before Cole’s historic streak.
On Apr. 9, they got him for three runs in seven innings in a 6-3 loss.
It’s going to be a tall order to derail Cole’s streak and bring a loss down on the righty. Especially because the Yankees’ announced starting lineup for Game 3 doesn’t boast much success or experience against him:
Yankees Game 3 ALCS starting lineup, career numbers vs. Gerrit Cole
1) DJ LeMahieu- 2-18, 4 K’s vs. Cole
2) Aaron Judge – 0-3, 1 BB
3) Brett Gardner- 1-4, 2 BB’s
4) Edwin Encarnacion- 2-11, 1 RBI, 4 K’s
5) Gleyber Torres- 0-3, 2 K’s
6) Didi Gregorius- N/A
7) Gary Sanchez- 2-3, 2 RBI
8) Gio Urshela- 0-5, 1 K
9) Aaron Hicks- N/A
Boone has opted not to include two of the more successful bats against Cole in his starting lineup. Giancarlo Stanton — whose health is still in question as he nurses a strained quad — is batting .300 with a home run against Cole while Cameron Maybin is 4-for-9 against the Astros ace.
It’s unclear whether or not Stanton will be available to pinch-hit, but Maybin could be a logical later-inning option should the Yankees struggle to get to Cole.
So the million-dollar question is how can the Yankees beat this guy?
If there was a clear-cut answer, some team over the past four-plus months would have exposed it.
The Yankees’ best chances of slowing down Cole is making him work — or throw as many pitches as possible.
That’s not going to be an easy task.
Of Cole’s 326 strikeouts in 2019, both in the regular and playoffs, 240 of them took just five pitches or fewer.
The 29-year-old likes to work fast and he doesn’t beat around the bush in the process. This is a pitcher that will attack the batter with a steady mix of fastballs, sliders, and curveballs — with a dash of a changeup that is thrown around six-percent of the time.
Time and time again, Cole will get ahead of the batter early by using his fastball — which averages around 97 mph — and placing it up in the zone.
It’s a pitch that opposing batter’s have such a difficult time laying off of because it’s in the middle of the zone but can rise above above the batter’s swing.
Cole then can go to his devestating secondary pitches to pull the rug out on the opposition.
His slider can touch 90 mph, which provides a similar trajectory as his fastball before dropping out of the zone in the final 20 feet or so.
Just take a look at how the pitches start so similarly, via Pitching Ninja, which sheds a light on just how difficult things are for batter’s facing Cole:
Gerrit Cole, 89mph Slider and 97mph Fastball, Overlay. pic.twitter.com/i0QN7smovG
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) October 11, 2019
The Yankees will have to try and find a way to lay off that high fastball to try and work counts in their favor. If they can get ahead of Cole in the count, they’ll at least force him to exhaust more of his stuff quicker than usual.
If Cole is flirting with the 100-pitch mark by the fifth or sixth inning, the Yankees will like their chances to get something off Houston’s bullpen in the Bronx.
