Gerrit Cole still has faith in Yankees despite rough first half

SEATTLE — There’s a reason why Gerrit Cole is the only member of the underachieving Yankees at this year’s All-Star Game. And that reason is pretty much the same one -- or at least a significant contributing factor -- that led to last Sunday’s firing of the hitting coach Dillon Lawson.

Just to have Cole make his first start at Tuesday’s Midsummer Classic, in six career trips, stood in stark contrast to the first-half mess the Yankees’ ace left behind in the Bronx. Cole described getting the nod as a “bucket list” item, and roughly four hours before throwing his opening pitch at T-Mobile Park, he insisted that the Yankees can climb out of the dumpster fire they were before the break.

Next on Cole’s list? 

“Well, a World Series,” Cole said. “Yeah, championship.”

As for whether that’s still possible for his fourth-place Yankees, who at 49-42 are one game out of the final wild-card spot, held by the Blue Jays, and a single game ahead of the cellar-dwelling Red Sox, Cole didn’t flinch.

“Always positive,” Cole said. “The great thing about the Yankees is they never stop trying to get better. There’s a track record of that going back to the 1920s. That’s one of the blessings about being a Yankee. You’re never too far out of the fight if you’re not right there in the thick of it.”

Cole was blessed with some All-Star quality defense Tuesday night, needing only nine pitches to get through his dramatic first inning, but also two leaping catches at the wall. The first was made by rightfielder Adolis Garcia, who fought a brutal 5 o’clock sun for his jumping grab of Ronald Acuna Jr’s deep drive. Next was Randy Arozarena in left, where he robbed Freddie Freeman -- prompting Cole to flash Arozarena’s arms-crossed signature pose.

“I figured he deserved it,” Cole said. “That was a sweet catch. It seemed like it was appropriate for the moment.”

As for the experience, Cole added, “I think it worked out great. They got good swings, I got out of there in nine pitches, and we played some great D. It’s a pretty cool first inning.”

Otherwise, the Mets had a quiet All-Star showing in the National League’s 3-2 victory, their first since 2012. Pete Alonso entered in the seventh inning as a pinch hitter and struck out in his two at-bats. Kodai Senga opted not to pitch in order to stay on routine and concentrate on the second half after his last-minute invite.

“Being a rookie, and first year in the big leagues, a big goal of mine was to stay in the rotation throughout the whole entire year without an injury,” Senga said through his interpreter. “That's still my goal and what I'm striving for. So I'm focused on the season." 

As for Cole, he arrived at the break as one of MLB’s best pitchers (9-2, 2.85 ERA) and a rare highlight for the Yankees. This season is shaping up to be the worst one yet with Cole, whose signing of that nine-year, $324 million contract prompted Hal Steinbrenner to pledge multiple titles during the length of his record-setting deal.

Consider Sunday’s first-half finale pretty close to rock bottom, as the Lawson firing marked the first time in Brian Cashman’s 25-year tenure that he’s axed a coach or manager during the season.

“I feel the operation is capable of a lot more than what we’ve produced to this point,” Cashman said Sunday.

 And it’s going to take more than a new face in the batting cage, but Cole sees reason to believe.

“Ultimately, you got to play well enough to get into the dance,” Cole said. “And then you've got to play your best baseball at that time. So you got to take the experiences that you have throughout the season, positive and negative, and use them to your advantage.” 

How much replacing Lawson with Sean Casey actually helps remains to be seen, especially with the reigning MVP Aaron Judge -- the planet’s most dangerous hitter -- out indefinitely with his toe injury. But if nothing else, firing a coach certainly gets a clubhouse’s attention, and Cole was the first Yankee to speak on the severe measure since it went down after Sunday’s 7-4 loss to the Cubs in the Bronx.

“Obviously Brian made the move that he made,” Cole said. “Probably took a lot of thought. It’s the only time he’s done that, I think, in his career as general manager. From my perspective, as far as Dillon, he put a lot of time in. He was grinding very hard. He was always a big advocate for his players. Whether they be hitters or pitchers, he was a good team guy.

“I think he’s a very bright baseball mind. We obviously have benefited a lot from his development in the minor leagues. I’m sure he’s going to get another job and he’s going to make a lot of other players great.”

Other than Cole, and the injured Judge, none of the current Yankees would qualify as “great” at the moment. That’s not all Lawson’s fault. But it’s now Casey’s responsibility to fix a sputtering offense that was hitting .216 over the 30-game span since Judge wound up on IL, including a .287 on-base percentage and .662 OPS.

Cole can’t do much about that anemic production, aside from trying to keep the other team off the scoreboard. He was fairly successful at that in the first half. The rest of the Yankees have some serious catching up to do.

“Some of the really, really great players that we have are just not going to perform at this level for the rest of the year. They’re going to improve. You have faith in the offense. You have faith in these players based on their process.”

By David Lennon

dave.lennon@newsday.comDPLennon

David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.