Despite the New York Yankees playing some solid baseball and being comfortably in a playoff spot, not everything is perfect in Yankee land.
The Yankees, who, with less than two weeks remaining in the season, occupy the first AL Wild Card spot and sit only 3.5 games behind the AL East Division-leading Tampa Bay Rays, have to be concerned about their 36-year-old veteran pitcher and former staff ace Gerrit Cole who has struggled mightily over his past two starts.
Gerrit Cole’s Recent Struggles Should Have Yankees Concerned
Yankees Veteran Starter Cole Has Back-to-Back Rough Outings
Cole, who missed all of last season recuperating from Tommy John Surgery, and didn’t make his first 2026 start until May 22nd against the Rays, surrendered a combined seven home runs and saw his ERA balloon up to 3.67 during his past two outings which was a 4-3 road loss against the San Diego Padres and most recently a 12-2 loss at Yankee Stadium against their cross town rivals New York Mets.
“It’s something that we’ve got to figure out for sure,” Cole said. “This is one of those times of the season I think you’ve got to start making adjustments. Sometimes adjustments are hard. But that’s the demand of the game. So you’ve got to find a way to get through it and get forward.”
Cole Surrenders Three Home Runs To First Three Batters vs. Padres
Cole has lived this nightmare before.
Back on Sunday, September 6th at Petco Park, Cole’s first 15 pitches of the game resulted in Padres home runs from outfielder Fernando Tatis Jr., infielder Jake Cronenworth and third baseman Manny Machado.
On the night, Cole would settle down as he went seven innings and surrendered six hits, four home runs, struck out three and threw 84 pitches.
“They put really good swings on the ball,” Cole said. “The curveball kind of squirted out to Tatis. Thought Machado took a great pitch out, unbelievable swing. And I thought Cronenworth took a pretty good 2-1 fastball and put a good swing on it.”
Cole was talking about the fourth home run he surrendered which came in the seventh inning against Padres catcher Luis Campusano.
This outing saw Cole make some MLB history that he more than likely would rather forget. He became the first pitcher to start a game by surrendering three straight first inning home runs on two occasions.
The first time came on June 9, 2022 against the Minnesota Twins when he surrendered three straight first inning home runs to infielder Luis Arraez, outfielder Byron Buxton and infielder Carlos Correa in an eventual 10-7 Yankees win.
In that outing, Cole pitched 2.1 innings and surrendered eight hits, seven runs, seven earned runs, five home runs and struck out three.
Cole Hears Boos During Loss vs. Mets
Unlike his previous outing against San Diego, Cole couldn’t recover from his early struggles in that 12-2 loss against the Mets.
In what had to be his lowest and most frustrating moment of the season, Cole heard some boos during an outing which saw the 2023 AL Cy Young Award winner last only 4.1 innings where he gave up nine hits, five runs, five earned runs, three home runs while striking out four batters in an outing which saw his record dip below .500 at 8-9 with a 3.67 ERA.
Taking Cole deep was infielder Francisco Lindor, catcher Luis Torrens and outfielder Carson Benge
“He got roughed up,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “That’s a hot team in here, swinging the bat well and they hit him around a little bit.”
With so many miles on Cole’s right arm, and of course having had Tommy John, the Yankees have to be a little worried about how he will hold up once they get into playoffs.
Still, in the past he has shown to be the ultimate playoff warrior and that’s what Yankee fans are crossing their fingers to see in a couple of weeks.
Main Image: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images
