Four starts into his return from a season-opening stint on the injured list, Gerrit Cole’s numbers hardly are worthy of the unanimous Cy Young Award he garnered in 2023 — the first such hardware of his career.
Cole couldn’t complete the fifth inning after another lost battle with familiar nemesis Rafael Devers, even if the Yankees belted four home runs — three by rookie Ben Rice — in their 14-4 blowout victory Saturday at the Stadium.
“Today was really hot, and at times I had trouble gripping the ball. But I thought I threw the ball pretty well, to be honest,” Cole said. “Pitch count got run up … but through it all, made a lot of good pitches. I got as deep as I could, but it was a grind.”
Cole reached 90 pitches for the second consecutive outing, but he gave up three runs in the third inning on RBI singles by Devers — his 1,000th career hit — Masataka Yoshida and Reese McGuire, before rebounding with three consecutive strikeouts in the fourth.
After adding his fourth straight strikeout — and eighth of the game — Cole’s 1-1 fastball was clubbed over the wall by Devers for a 4-3 Boston lead.
Devers is batting .333 (13-for-39) in his career against Cole with eight home runs and 18 RBIs in 15 games, twice as many homers as any other MLB player has managed against the $324 million righty during his 12-year career.
“Like I’ve said many times before, he’s not an easy at-bat,” Devers said through a translator. “It’s not like I feel very comfortable against him. We know the type of pitcher that he is. He’s one of the best. But at the same time, I’ve hit well against him.”
Aaron Boone summoned lefty Tim Hill to replace Cole, who was charged with four earned runs and seven hits with two walks over 4 ¹/₃ innings.
The six-time All-Star now sports a 6.75 ERA over 17 ¹/₃ innings in his first four appearances off the IL, with his longest outing the five innings of one-run ball he tossed last Sunday in Toronto.
“I thought Gerrit was all right. I thought his stuff was pretty good,” Boone said. “It was really hot, and I think that took its toll, especially the at-bats they took against him in the first couple of innings.
“He had I think 40 pitches after two, up over 60 after three. And I think that took its toll, without question. But I thought he made a lot of really good pitches, and I thought his stuff was there. … But they just kind of wore him down and outlasted him a little bit to get him out of there [for] a shorter day.”
