Gerrit Cole bolsters Cy Young bid in Yankees' win over Tigers
Gerrit Cole of the Yankees pitches against the Tigers during the first inning at Comerica Park on Wednesday in Detroit. Credit: Getty Images/Duane Burleson
DETROIT – Gerrit Cole continues full-steam ahead into the final month of the season, one he and the Yankees hope ends with him winning his first career Cy Young Award.
The righthander, among the few highlights of this lost 2023 Yankees season, kept those hopes very much alive Wednesday night in a 6-2 victory over the Tigers in front of 15,731 at Comerica Park.
Cole (12-4), on the short list of favorites for the American League edition of award, allowed two runs, four hits and two walks in keeping his ERA to a league-low 2.95. Cole, who has twice finished second in Cy Young voting – including a razor’s edge loss to teammate Justin Verlander in 2019 when both were members of the Astros – has allowed two runs or fewer in 21 of his 28 starts. Cole, who said he had a “pretty good” fastball but felt his “delivery was a little bit out of whack,” struck out seven.
“You’re not perfect every night, you have to figure out how to work with it,” Cole said. “Ben [Rortvedt] did a great job tonight taking the types of misses that we were having and using those to our advantage and keeping them off-balance as we progressed through the game with the sequencing.”
The Tigers’ runs came on solo homers by Jake Rogers (in the third inning) and Spencer Torkelson (in the sixth).
Cole’s teammates more than came through on the offensive side.
The Yankees (65-68) hit three home runs – DJ LeMahieu, Gleyber Torres and Giancarlo Stanton went deep – in winning the first three games here, clinching their first series victory since sweeping the Royals July 21-23 at the Stadium.
Stanton got the Yankees on the board with an RBI single in the first off Tigers opener Brendan White, who later loaded the bases, then hit Everson Pereira to force in a run that made it 2-0.
LeMahieu’s 13th homer, a one-out shot in the second off Joey Wentz, made it 3-0 and Pereira’s RBI single in the third that brought in Volpe, who doubled, made it 4-0.
Torres (No. 23) and Stanton (No. 20) went back-to-back off Wentz in the fourth to make it 6-1.
Cole, out-of-whack delivery and all, mostly cruised. The Tigers (59-74) didn't put a runner in scoring position all night.
“I think it’s very meaningful,” Aaron Boone said before the game of Cole and the Cy Young. “That’s the award in pitching. Pitching’s been a big part of his life, right? So I think any pitcher you mention [saying] those words [Cy Young], it’s meaningful. I think the guy’s on a Hall of Fame track and certainly adding something like that would be an awesome boost to the resume, and I know meaningful to not only him but all of his teammates as well.”
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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