Yankees' Gerrit Cole at loss for words after tough outing 

This time, Gerrit Cole walked off the mound quietly.

The only exchange Cole had with manager Aaron Boone was handing him the baseball in the sixth inning of Wednesday’s 5-1 loss to the Braves at Truist Park. He uttered no discernible words, PG-13 or otherwise, like last week’s departure.

It was the Braves who made all the noise, adding to Cole’s climbing home run total with three more over five innings -- including a pair of Statcast-smashing blasts from Ronald Acuna Jr. (473 feet) and Marcell Ozuna (469). When you mix in Dansby Swanson’s rather pedestrian 345-foot shot, that’s nearly a quarter-mile of homers, plenty to humble the Yankees’ $324-million ace in the first game of Wednesday’s doubleheader.

Mistakes? Cole made a few. He left a 90-mph slider up to Swanson, who managed to get the barrel out in time to drive it over the rightfield wall. The 83-mph knuckle curve to Ozuna just wound up in a place he could reach.

But Cole offered no apology for the 97-mph heater he tried to throw past Acuna leading off the game. He just got beat to the spot by a “superstar” hitter, as Cole referred to the top three in the Braves’ lineup. And after Acuna’s blast, which appeared headed for orbit, the Yankees seemed to spend the rest of the afternoon in shock as they watched Cole get shelled (by his standards, at least).

“I just sort of liked to have pitched better,” said Cole, whose 20-game winning streak, dating to last May, came to a close. “It seemed to be a little bit feast-or-famine in terms of good command  for a period of time and some bad command in some bad spots.”

“Times when I thought that they were going to be aggressive, they were patient. And times when I thought maybe I could grab some more of the zone in some situations, I made a poor pitch and they were being aggressive. It just didn't match up and they stayed about one step ahead of me too many times.”

Cole matched a career-high in allowing those three homers, and his 10 this season tied the Padres’ Chris Paddack for most in the majors. Teams also seem to know that the only opportunity to beat Cole is by doing it with the longball -- he’s surrendered just a total of 16 runs overall. From the outside, it always seems stunning to see Cole get bruised as he was Wednesday by the Braves, but slugging clubs have a puncher’s chance at denting him.  

“You're not stringing hits together typically against a great pitcher,” Boone said. “You’ve got to take advantage of when you do get a mistake. When you're facing an ace and a pitcher of the caliber of Cole, you're a little more inclined to sell out on some things and look into some particular areas because you know you're not going to be typically getting three and four hits in an inning.”

Ultimately, the Braves didn’t need any rallies against Cole, who had enough working to rack up nine strikeouts. And he wasn’t particularly unnerved by the thumping -- basically because it was less than a handful pitches that hurt him. Cole was much more chill than a week earlier, when he was clearly upset with Boone’s decision to lift him and still had steam coming out of his ears during the postgame Zoom with the media.

Shaking off a few homers -- no matter how majestic -- is part of Cole’s process. But I wouldn’t blame the Yankees for being a little rattled by not getting Stopper Gerrit as their losing streak stretched to four games. After last week’s sweep by the visiting Rays, followed by a five-day layoff -- due to the Mets’ quarantine and Tuesday’s rainout -- the Yankees could have used a kick-start. Cole is the guy everyone looks to in these circumstances, and they wound up with another helping of frustration instead.

“I definitely went out there with a mentality to try to set the tone for the day,” Cole said.

It just turned out to be the wrong one. Once Acuna sent the sixth pitch of the game high into the leftfield bleachers, Cole retired the side on three straight swinging Ks to seemingly regain control. But the Braves jumped him again for a pair of homers in the third inning, and Swanson’s two-run blast was the one that really stung.

“That was impactful on the game,” Cole said. “I would certainly like that pitch back.”

Now Cole has to wait until Monday to lift the Yankees, and they’ll probably be just as desperate with the Rays returning to the Bronx. Next time, Cole just has to keep a few more of those pitches in the park.

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.