Gerrit Cole silences Mariners as Yankees end losing streak
Gerrit Cole #GerritCole
NEW YORK — Gerrit Cole stared down José Caballero and wagged a finger at the Seattle Mariners’ dugout 15 times after striking out the side in the seventh inning, a pointed response to the rookie’s repeated step-outs during the New York Yankees’ 3-1 win on Tuesday night that stopped a four-game losing streak.
After Caballero stepped out with an 0-and-2 count in the seventh, Cole threw a 97-mile-per-hour fastball to the screen. The Yankees’ ace got Caballero swinging on a full-count fastball, stared at him as he walked off the mound, then turned to the Mariners’ dugout and wagged his right index finger over and over.
Plate umpire Dan Bellino then walked toward the New York dugout and had an intense discussion with manager Aaron Boone.
Cole (8-1) allowed one run and four hits in 7⅓ innings with eight strikeouts and a walk. He received a standing ovation when he was replaced by Clay Holmes, then raised his right index finger and thumb to tip his cap to the crowd of 43,130 as he walked to the dugout.
Cole is 4-0 with a 1.87 ERA following a Yankees loss this season, and New York is 7-0 in those starts.
Holmes got five straight outs for his ninth save in 11 chances, ending a game that took just 2 hours, 9 minutes.
Anthony Rizzo had an RBI double off the right-field wall in the first against George Kirby (6-6), and Billy McKinney hit a 432-foot, two-run homer in the second, providing a boost to a Yankees offense that entered with major league lows of a .192 batting average and 49 runs in June.
New York is 5-8 since Aaron Judge injured his right big toe on June 3, and New York is just 9-14 with its star slugger on the injured list this season. Judge appears to be responding to a second platelet-rich plasma injection to his right big toe yet has not resumed baseball activities.
Judge was hurt when he ran into a wall while making a catch at Dodger Stadium. The Yankees announced the first injection on June 6 and said Judge had another last Thursday.
Before the game, Victor Wembanyama, the 7-foot-4-inch French player expected to be taken by San Antonio with the first pick in the NBA Draft on Thursday, threw out a wild ceremonial first pitch.
The 19-year-old wore a pinstriped jersey with “New York” across the chest and he had Joe DiMaggio’s No. 5 on the back. Standing on the rubber, he fired the ball in the dirt, well wide of the plate to the first-base side.