Tuesday night in Chicago was supposed to be about Gerrit Cole, and it mostly was. Cole went 6 shutout innings on 4 hits, struck out 7 and walked 2, improving to 4-5 on the season in his 12th start since coming back from Tommy John surgery in May. That's the number that matters here. A guy who wasn't throwing a pitch in a big-league game 2 months ago is now the steadiest arm in the Yankees rotation, and it showed again against Chicago.
A Yankees fan headed into Rate Field before first pitch, ready for another Cole start.
The offense did its damage early and let Cole handle the rest. Anthony Volpe drove in a run in the second inning with a double that clanged off the center fielder's glove at the wall, and Max Schuemann followed with a two-run knock that bounced fair down the third-base line. That was it for the scoring, 3 runs and done, but with the way Cole was pitching it looked like plenty.
Jasson Dominguez quietly had himself a night too, picking up 2 hits and reaching base 3 times. There's been a growing chorus around Dominguez lately about the way he's using the whole field from the right side, and Tuesday was another example of it.
A note on the trend with Dominguez going the opposite way through the right side of the infield.
I don't know man, there's something about Dominguez hitting from the right side and going with a pitch the opposite way through an open hole.
Cole also made a nice defensive play on a comebacker during his outing, the kind of thing that gets pitchers half-jokingly bragging about their fielding stats to each other in the dugout.
Cole handling a ball hit back at him on the mound during the outing.
None of it was stress-free at the end. David Bednar came on to close it out and gave up a 2-run homer to Chase Meidroth with 2 outs in the ninth, cutting what had been a comfortable lead down to one run and putting the tying run at the plate. Bednar settled in and struck out former Yankee Everson Pereira to slam the door, picking up his 22nd save and locking in the 3-2 win.
The Yankees improved to 61-46 with the victory, and Cole's line is exactly the kind of trend New York needed to see as it heads toward the stretch run. A pitcher this far removed from elbow surgery isn't supposed to look this sharp this consistently, and if he keeps stacking starts like this one, the Yankees' rotation math in August gets a lot easier.