{"id":248618,"date":"2021-05-13T08:36:01","date_gmt":"2021-05-13T05:36:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/gerrit-cole-is-the-perfect-elixir-for-stressed-yankees\/"},"modified":"2021-05-13T08:36:01","modified_gmt":"2021-05-13T05:36:01","slug":"gerrit-cole-is-the-perfect-elixir-for-stressed-yankees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/gerrit-cole-is-the-perfect-elixir-for-stressed-yankees\/","title":{"rendered":"#Gerrit Cole is the perfect elixir for stressed Yankees"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Gerrit Cole is the perfect elixir for stressed Yankees<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

For Gerrit Cole, the game<\/a> itself served as a stress reliever of sorts.<\/p>\n

For his teammates? That role was played by Cole himself.<\/p>\n

If the Yankees ace has committed very few missteps since putting on the pinstrip<\/a>es, Wednesday night at Tropicana Field might have been his best step yet. With his club fighting the oddest COVID-19 outbreak his sport has experienced, Cole shoved his way to a dominant, 1-0 victory over the Rays, extending the Yankees\u2019 winning streak to four games and ending a streak of series<\/a> losses to Tampa Bay, including last year\u2019s American League Division Series, at seven.<\/p>\n

Over eight brilliant innings, Cole allowed just four hits, none in four shots with runners in scoring position, while walking none and striking out 12. He has registered an amazing 56 Ks since his last walk, a free pass to the Blue Jays\u2019 Yuli Gurriel Jr. on April 12.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is an absolute bulldog,\u201d Cole\u2019s manager Aaron Boone said. \u201cI think he lives for pitching when it\u2019s tough in the biggest of games, and obviously in a 1-0 game, we needed all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a really nice compliment,\u201d replied Cole, who lowered his ERA to a ridiculous 1.37. \u201cI certainly enjoy playing meaningful games. There was a lot going on today, and it was a bit challenging to get focused for the game. But once you\u2019re there, it\u2019s kind of business as usual.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Gerrit
Gerrit Cole<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Business as usual amid this pinstriped winning streak has meant superb pitching teamed with just enough offense \u2014 Aaron Hicks\u2019 seventh-inning sacrifice fly against Jeffrey Springs allowed Aaron Judge, who knocked three singles, to tag and score from home, breaking the scoreless tie \u2014 and then the Yankees mixed a pandemic into that business.<\/p>\n

A stunning seven staff members, all of them purportedly recipients of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, tested positive for the disease, while shortstop Gleyber Torres stayed away from the ballpark due to inconclusive results. (The Yankees, confident that Torres would be cleared shortly, disclosed that he dealt with COVID during the offseason.)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s nutty and unnerving, and before the game, Thursday night\u2019s starter Jameson Taillon acknowledged, \u201cI thought we were out of the woods, but here we are.\u201d The encouraging news<\/a>, for both the Yankees and believers in science<\/a>, was that only third base coach Phil Nevin felt any symptoms, the conditions of the other six alleviated by having received their shots.<\/p>\n

Cole, active in the MLB Players Association, helped keep the peace these past couple of days. Yet at a certain point Wednesday afternoon, he had to defer to the team\u2019s player representative, Zack Britton, and focus on his primary task \u2014 which he did extremely well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think just mixing all four pitches [fastball, slider, curveball and changeup] at all times,\u201d Cole\u2019s steady catcher Kyle Higashioka said. \u201cHe did a really good job staying in his lanes and executing everything all game. I really thought that that was very impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s so good, and so fun to watch, and so versatile out there, and able to get you out in so many different ways,\u201d Boone said.<\/p>\n