When the Pirates made Gerrit Cole the first pick in the 2011 draft, the vision that they had for Cole was clear: a snarling, fire-breathing ace that would chuck 98 mph fastballs in the eighth inning and turn a manager to stone when he came to get the ball from him after 108 pitches. That’s the Gerrit Cole that manifested last night in Arizona. I missed most of the game (I was out in Durham to watch the Bulls play and saw Pedro Ciriaco hit a monster homer for the Gwinnett Braves), but got home in time for Cole’s eighth. Pitching that deep into the game was the one thing missing from Cole’s last two starts against the Tigers and Brewers; seeing him get to the eighth last night was pretty much exactly what I’d hoped for. Through four starts, Cole’s thrown 24 2/3 innings, struck out 27, walked 7, and has a 62.1% ground ball rate. The ground ball rate will presumably normalize some, but that line is flat-out unfair. This is the Gerrit Cole that everyone said the Pirates needed to see when the season began.
One other thing to note from last night: Mark Melancon got another 1-2-3 save despite having no velocity on his cutter. He didn’t lean on his curveball as much as he did in the last two outings against the Cubs, but his fastest pitch last night was 89 mph. I’m happy to see him get outs these last two games, but I’m terrified that all it’s doing is setting up another disaster like the one we saw on Tuesday night.
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