Gerrit Cole hoping to turn it around against his old team on Saturday
Gerrit Cole of the Yankees pitches against the Mets during the first game of a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium on Sunday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
HOUSTON — Gerrit Cole is well aware of the narrative and equally aware that there’s only one way to change it.
Cole will enter Saturday night’s start against the Astros with a more-than-respectable 8-4 record and 2.91 ERA this season. But he is 2-2 with a 5.24 ERA in his last six starts, a stretch that began at exactly the same time that word came down that MLB had decided to crack down on the use of illicit sticky substances applied to baseballs by pitchers.
"[I’m] on the record talking about that there is an adjustment," Cole said.
The ace, signed to a nine-year, $324 million free-agent contract in December 2019, went on to say that those struggles "at this point have nothing to do with the rule enforcement from four or five weeks ago or whatever."
Cole added: "It's just . . . there's ebbs and flows to your delivery as the game goes on throughout the season. And we’ve got to tighten up some stuff, and trying to do that here and trying to do that against good teams. And so, again, that's where my focus has been, and that's what we've identified as a group as what needs to kind of tick up a little bit."
As for returning to Houston — Cole went 35-10 with a 2.68 ERA with the Astros from 2018-19, a period that ultimately earned him the contract he got with the Yankees — he hopes for a warm reaction from the Minute Maid Park crowd when he takes the mound.
"We had a couple good seasons together and, obviously, didn't achieve our ultimate goal," said Cole, whose 2019 Astros team lost to the Nationals in seven games in the World Series. "But there was lot of hard work and we made a lot of friends in the community. So hopefully a good [reaction]."
Voit sits
Luke Voit, hit in the right hand by a 96-mph fastball from Logan Gilbert in the second inning of Thursday’s loss to the Mariners in Seattle, did not start Friday night at first, replaced there by DJ LeMahieu.
"He’s actually good to go," Aaron Boone said. "I just kind of based [it] on him getting hit on the hand, hit in the knee earlier this week. The stretch he’s been through, I felt like today was the day I wanted to have him down. But he’ll be an active player for us."
Mr. October in the house
Reggie Jackson, a longtime adviser for the Yankees who split on not the best of terms with the organization and subsequently was brought aboard by Astros owner Jim Crane as a special adviser to Crane Capital in May, was on the field before Friday’s game. Jackson, wearing a cap and shoes containing Astros orange, caught up with Boone, Aaron Judge and Gleyber Torres, among others.
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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