The right-hander was fine, picking up his 19th straight win as the Yankees beat up on the Phillies 6-3 in a rain-delayed game. The game had to be rescheduled from last week when the Phillies were shut down for a week because they had been exposed to several Marlins players who tested positive for the coronavirus.
It was the seventh straight win for the Yankees (8-1) and their ninth straight game with at least one home run.
DJ LeMahieu, Brett Gardner and Gio Urshela each homered for the Yankees, who have muscled up 20 home runs in their first nine games. Aaron Judge had his streak of five straight games with a home run snapped, but he had a single and double and scored a run.
“The power is there. The communication to the lineup is there, the defense is crisp. Guys are bringing it every night especially with a lot of unknowns and a lot of uncertainty,” Cole said of his support.
“So we’ve definitely got started off on the right foot and, and very impressive so far.”
That was enough for Cole against a Phillies team that had not played a game since July 26 because of the Marlins Covid-19 outbreak. He did not have his swing-and-miss stuff Monday night, but with a rusty Phillies lineup, he managed to hold them to one run on five hits over six innings of work.
He walked a batter and struck out four. Former Met Jay Bruce homered off Cole in the third inning.
In this 60-game sprint of a coronavirus-shortened season, Cole and other pitchers are still feeling their way into it.
“I think all of us are kind of settling in ... the level of intensity is not increasing anymore. You know, the games all have equal weight. And we know what to expect in the heat of the moment. The feel of the games, they have a lot of edge even though there’s not a lot of people in the stands,” Cole said.
“But I think definitely kind of levelling off not building up anymore. We’re looking to kind of settle into a groove and continue to improve.”
It was Cole’s 19th straight win, dating back to May 27, 2019 with the Astros. He has now gone 25 starts without a loss.
His win streak is the longest since Jake Arrieta went 20 with the Cubs in 2015-16. Monday night, it was Arrieta making his season debut for the Phillies, who played just three games before their season was paused to try and contain the Covid-19 outbreak. The Phillies had no players test positive after their series with the Marlins, but were shutdown for seven days, underwent everyday testing and were told to isolate at home.
The pause seemingly worked as the Phillies, who continued their extensive testing back in Philadelphia before boarding buses and then going through in-take testing when they arrived in the Bronx, had no new positive tests Monday.
But they also had the challenge of coming out of an almost complete shut down to face the hottest hitting team in the league with their new ace on the mound.
“I think the hardest thing is trying to keep players sharp, and we’re really not going to know until we go through this and with all the rain coming tomorrow we’re gonna have another break it’s just, you want to kind of get back to some normalcy,” Phillies manager Joe Girardi said before Monday’s game in the Bronx.
“If we were football we would be in good shape, but we’re not. So guys who would have got an extra day to rest instead of playing on Sunday – that’s Monday Night Football. But I think it’s how short our guys are going to be. Where some starters are getting their third start under their belt, the pitchers, we had guys that haven’t started a game.
“So those are the challenges that you have to face.”
Related Story
