In a lot of ways, this was vintage Gerrit Cole, who allowed two home runs but struck out a season-best 11 and showed off maybe his best stuff since returning from surgery.
In a lot of ways, this was vintage José Caballero, whose pitch-timer violation and argument led to a strikeout and ejection of hitting coach James Rowson.
And in a lot of ways, this was the recent Yankees offense, which scored with one swing and not again.
Ben Rice’s three-run blast in the seventh inning was not enough, the Yankees continuing to fail in the clutch and falling, 5-3, to the Pirates in 10 innings to disappoint the announced crowd of 43,290 who showed for the matinee end of a doubleheader.
A day that started with excitement for the Yankees, who for the first time were going to see Cole and Max Fried in the same rotation and on the same day, instead began with the same exasperation over a lack of offense, which finished 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
The offense for the Yankees (56-45) exploded for eight runs Monday, but any momentum was gone by Wednesday, when the Yankees finished with six hits (in part because Pittsburgh played a quality game defensively). The Yankees have scored more than five runs just twice in their past 29 games.
The Pirates rallied against Fernando Cruz in the 10th, with run-scoring hits from Jared Triolo (a well-struck single to left that was out of Cody Bellinger’s reach) and Jake Mangum (who dropped a single in front of Trent Grisham).
In the 10th, Bellinger (strikeout), Jasson Domínguez (pop-up) and Jazz Chisholm Jr. (pop-out) could not come through, which has become routine for an attack that lacks Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton.
The Yankees only scored in the seventh, when Rice stepped up with two runners on and demolished his 30th homer of the season into the second deck in right to tie the game.
But until and after that at-bat, the Yankees had few chances and nothing to show for them, opening 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.
In the fourth, Spencer Jones and Bellinger walked without an out to begin a threat. But neither advanced beyond that, Domínguez flying out, Chisholm striking out (and burning a challenge along the way) and Caballero unable to hold up on a check swing.
The fifth went similarly: Austin Wells and Grisham tallied back-to-back, one-out singles, but Rice struck out (while burning their last challenge) and Jones flied out.
A bright spot was Cole, who entered having induced as many as 12 swings-and-misses in a game — a total he matched before the end of the fourth inning Wednesday, finishing with 21.
Cole sat down the first 14 batters he faced and was perfect until he was decidedly imperfect. With two outs in the fifth, Nick Gonzales ripped a clean single past a diving Ryan McMahon, and three pitches later Jacob Gonzalez waited on a 1-1 changeup and pulled it to the short porch for a two-run lead.
Cole rebounded and escaped a testy sixth, in which he pitched around a one-out balk that appeared to emerge from the pitch clock shutting off while Cole was on the mound, but he served up another homer in the seventh, the other Gonzales stroking a four-seamer into the Yankees’ bullpen in right-center.
A controversial spot was Caballero, who would lead the league in “arguments with umpires” if it ever becomes a tracked statistic.
Caballero, whose pitch-clock manipulation often angers opposing pitchers (which is kind of the point) and which emptied the benches on Monday, was rung up for a violation in the sixth. He argued, insisted that he had made eye contact with the pitcher by the required 8 seconds left on the clock, yet was still given a second strike and had to be separated from home-plate umpire Quinn Wolcott by Aaron Boone and third base coach Luis Rojas. Meanwhile, a screaming Rowson was ejected from the dugout.
On the very next pitch, Caballero struck out.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
