The Yankees’ season has been a disaster in so many ways, with the latest gut punch coming with the revelation after Sunday’s walk-off win over the Brewers that wunderkind outfielder Jasson Dominguez has a torn UCL in his right elbow.
Gerrit Cole has performed like an ace throughout the year, however, and he’s the odds-on favorite to win the AL Cy Young award for the first time in his career.
The $324 million righty tossed seven more shutout innings on Sunday, matching zeroes with former NL Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes, who worked eight of the Yanks 10 hitless frames before they finally pulled out the 4-3 victory in 13.
“Burnesy was on his game, very much so today, one of the best pitchers in the world,” Cole said. “So as a fellow pitcher, you definitely respect that type of effort and that really diverged over the first 10 innings or so.”
The Brewers managed only three hits over Cole’s seven scoreless frames, lowering his ERA to an AL-best 2.79 over a league-leading 187 innings pitched.
It marked the fourth no-decision for Cole (13-4) this season with at least five innings pitched and zero runs allowed, the most across MLB.
He also has made 23 starts this year with no more than two runs allowed, behind only Jack Chesbro (28) in 1904 and Ron Guidry (26) in 1978 in team history.
Cole’s strikeout of Andruw Monasterio in the fifth inning — his fifth of nine in the game — also was his 200th of the season.
It’s the third time he’s reached that figure in four seasons with the Yankees, with the lone exception the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign.
No other pitcher in franchise history has more than two seasons with more than 200 K’s.
“That’s a cool number. I like that. I got some more work to do, but it’s something that I’m proud of,” Cole said.
“I was paying attention to that as we were going today. It’s who he is,” Aaron Boone said. “He’s been so consistent. I do that Immaculate Grid [game], and it’s amazing how many people don’t have 200-strikeout [seasons]. He’s got a lot of them. Just a great pitcher. And it’s just fun to watch him at the craft.”
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