Yankees ace Gerrit Cole's 'normal process' won't change coming off worst start of season

Talk to most relievers – the best of them anyway – and the pitchers have this much in common:

If they have a bad outing, they can’t wait to get back on the mound, preferably a day later if possible, to put it in the rearview mirror.

It can work that way with some starters but not all.

Gerrit Cole, for instance, when the above regarding relievers was brought to him earlier this week, said because of the nature of starting pitching – namely, taking the ball every fifth day – it’s not something he thinks about one way or the other.  

“It’s not really a reality,” Cole said.  

In other words, even if Cole, coming off his worst start of the season by far, wanted to get right back on the proverbial horse, he has to wait for his next rotation turn regardless.

“Since it’s not (a realistic scenario),” Cole said, “it just kind of goes back to the normal process.”

Meaning the process of preparing for the next start, which in this case is Friday night against the Rays at the Stadium.

Cole’s previous outing happened to come against the same team, last Sunday at Tropicana Field and it did not go well, despite a promising start.

The ace righthander, who came into the outing 5-0 with a 1.35 ERA, was spotted a 6-0 lead going into the bottom of the fifth inning. Even as good as the Rays have been this season, on offense in particular, there was no reason to expect Cole to give back the lead.

But give it back he did, allowing a season-high six runs (five earned) and eight hits in a season-low five innings-plus (the Yankees lost 8-7, in 10 innings).

Cole, who did not allow a homer in 46 2⁄3 innings in his first seven starts after giving up an American League-high 33 in 2022, allowed two last Sunday, including a back-breaking three-run shot by Christian Bethancourt that tied it 6-6 in the sixth inning.

The blast came on a slider that caught too much of the plate and among issues Cole hopes to fix in Friday’s rematch is better control overall, but of his breaking pitches especially.

“The command of it wasn’t good,” Cole said Sunday of his breaking stuff. “Those pitches were over the heart of the plate. The lack of command really burned us.”

As for facing the same team, one with a stacked lineup no less, five days later, Cole said “that’s always a challenge.”

But also one he’s used to.

“More often times than not I get to division teams, as many times as I can, throughout the season, and that's understood, and I do enjoy that,” Cole said this week. “I do take pride in that and I do expect that, and I want to perform in that situation.”

Aaron Boone said he doesn’t see it as a big deal as it’s a situation that presents itself, as Cole alluded to, a few times a season when it comes to division games.

“You kind of get used to it to some degree, obviously playing within your division,” Boone said Thursday. “Maybe it’s a little bit different now (and it will) happen less often with less division games (because of the balanced schedule). I always feel like as a hitter you prefer that familiarity. But that said, these games are riddled with a guy that struggles and then bounces back and throws the ball really well. It comes down to usually, if really good pitchers execute, it’s difficult to generate much.”