I missed Gerrit Cole’s return from the disabled list yesterday, but obviously after seeing his box score in the afternoon the first thing I did when I got home last night was to open up his Brooks Baseball page and check out his velocity chart. Seeing his fastball top out at 99 and average 96 was a bit of a relief. His velocity dropped a bit around the 50th pitch, but if you check out his prior starts this year that fits his usual pattern pretty well; usually he comes out firing, tails off a little bit, then finishes with a late burst of velocity. Obviously he didn’t pitch all that well, but the main thing is that he appears to be healthy. Given that he didn’t make any rehab starts, I don’t think it’s all that unusual to be a bit rusty in his first start. Hopefully this will just be a blip on the radar.
The Pirates still have a chance to get three of four from the Mets, which I thought was the main goal coming into this series. Edinson Volquez starts today, looking to build on his excellent eight inning start last time out. He’ll face Bartolo Colon, who was excellent against the Pirates in his last start against them.
First pitch today 1:35
