Gerrit Cole Dealing With The New Coronavirus Baseball Rules Is a Fascinating Watch
Gerrit Cole threw 5 innings tonight in the Yankees intrasquad game. For the most part he was his dominant self, aside from a few pitches that he'll probably lose hours of sleep over. One particular sequence, however, stole the show tonight. After striking out Mike Tauchman to open his outing, Gary Sanchez threw the ball around the infield, like he normally would. The issue with this under the COVID-19 rules is that this ball had to be taken out of play because so many people touched it. A pitcher will normally like to hold onto that ball and use it to begin the next at bat since he was comfortable with it and could get a better grip.
Cole's reaction to the ball being thrown away was fascinating and it's something a lot of guys are going to have to get used to. Catchers are going to have to learn to not throw that ball down the 3rd or 1st base line following a strikeout so they don't piss off their battery mate. The result? Cole got a new ball that he didn't want and served up a homer to Miguel Andujar on the first pitch. Here's Jomboy's breakdown of the whole situation.
Afterwards Cole addressed the moment and laughed about it.
This is part of the new norm. Throwing the ball around the horn is going to have to take a back seat in 2020 and maybe moving forward. The rule seems ridiculous and unnessessary, but maybe the Yankees were just playing it safe. I can't see this sticking, but we'll see i guess. On a side note, Andujar hitting a homer off Cole was pretty sweet! Get that bat back in the lineup and oh boy good luck getting these guys out.
Overall Cole was fantastic. He threw 5 innings, struck out 6, allowed just one hit, and retired the final 10 batters he faced. Granted all these guys are still getting in the swing of things at the plate. None of them have reached double digit live at bats in 2020. Give them a week and they'll be more on top of the ball and not as much overpowered. That doesn't take away a thing from Cole. He's a machine and is awesome to watch. Seeing him on the mound in Yankee Stadium was a joy. It's incredible to see how mad he gets after he misses location on a single pitch. This is an intrasquad game still weeks from Opening Day and he was FURIOUS in the 4th inning on a missed location to Ianetta that almost left the ball park. Might as well been the playoffs. I LOVE that.
That's the Michael Jordan mentality that I can't get enough of.
Here are some highlights to close out the blog.
Sorry Sock…
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