Gerrit Cole on facing the Yankees: Someone's going to get you

OAKLAND, Calif. — Gerrit Cole entered Friday night’s start concerned with the A’s lineup he would be facing, obviously.

His job was to control a lineup that is plenty potent, as evidenced by the three home runs the A's hit the night before while coming back from a six-run deficit to tie before the Yankees earned their 12th straight victory, 7-6.

But on the eve of Friday’s start, Cole paused and smiled as he pondered this question: What are the primary challenges he would see if the lineup he had to face Friday was the one in his own dugout?

"Well, I don't want to dissect ‘em and write the road map for the A’s here," he said.

Still, being who he is when it comes to analyzing the game, Cole nonetheless answered the question.

"But there's not one method anymore, I think, that you can use to get outs," he said. "There's not one part of the strike zone where you can get comfortable and pick your spots on who to challenge and who not to challenge because eventually that part of the strike zone will be open for you. At some point, you're going to run into somebody that's going to be able to cover that, so you're going to be forced to move the ball around."

Giancarlo Stanton and Luke Voit moved the ball around pretty well in the fourth inning Friday night. In the span of five pitches from Sean Manaea, Stanton hit a 472-foot home run to center — his sixth homer in the last nine games — and Voit hit a 437-foot blast to center. That gave Cole a 2-0 lead — which became 5-0 when Aaron Judge hit a three-run shot to center off Manaea in the fifth (413 feet).

The Yankees came into Friday the hottest team in baseball, both currently and well before that. Besides riding the 12-game winning streak, they came into Friday having won 34 of their previous 45 games. They had gone 24-5 in their previous 29 games, their best stretch of that length in a single season since they went 24-5 from July 20-Aug. 18, 1998. The 1998 club, of course, is considered among the best teams in franchise history and even MLB history.

Pitching, naturally, has been a significant part of the stretch, during the winning streak in particular, with the staff posting a 2.74 ERA and holding the opposition to three or fewer runs in eight of those 12 games.

But as has been pointed out repeatedly by opposing team managers and pitchers — as well as by plenty in the Yankees’ dugout — a lineup that suddenly became far more diverse with the addition of lefthanded hitters Joey Gallo and Anthony Rizzo has played just as big a part (the Yankees scored at least five runs in 10 of the 12 games during the streak).

In 26 games since the trade deadline, the Yankees, 22-4 in those games, are averaging 5.3 runs per game and are hitting .248 with 35 homers and a .770 OPS. By comparison, in the 26 games before the deadline, the Yankees, in going 13-13, averaged 4.3 runs per game, hitting .235 with 29 homers and a .720 OPS.

"There's power, obviously. I mean, three guys hit the ball 120 [mph exit velocity], there's moxie, there's speed at the bottom," Cole said. "There's the ability to hit to all fields, both at the top and at the bottom. So I think the big takeaway is that you’re going to have to dominate two sides of the plate, you're going have to throw strikes. You may be able to pitch around one [hitter], but you're not going to be able to pitch around two or three. So you're just going to have to be on your stuff. My best suggestion would be bring out your best stuff and pound the strike zone."

Given the way the Yankees have been playing of late, all that was missing from Cole was this postscript: "Good luck."