Gerrit Cole’s home run struggles returning in new Yankees concern

Gerrit Cole was good enough to help the Yankees win, but not good enough to feel overly optimistic about his afternoon. 

The Yankees ace allowed six runs (five earned) in six-plus innings mostly because his 2022 problem — surrendering too many home runs — has returned. 

Cole, who went his first seven outings this season without giving up a homer, has given up eight in his past five games after the Padres tagged him for a couple Sunday in the 10-7 Yankees victory in The Bronx. 

Cole gave up just four hits, but half of those were dingers: a first-inning shot from Jake Cronenworth, who hammered a down-the-middle fastball, and a seventh-inning, two-run homer from former Yankee Rougned Odor, who watched an attempted outside fastball drift into an inside fastball. 

“Both those fastballs missed on the opposite side of the plate,” said Cole, who struck out nine and largely was untouchable when he located well. “Those hitters were ready for it.” 

In between the first and the seventh, Cole allowed only runs in the second inning, in which overthrows from center fielder Harrison Bader and catcher Kyle Higashioka (and Cole’s failure to back up home plate) turned a Jose Azocar single into a Little League home run. 

Cole sailed afterward and retired 10 straight Padres. 

“I really think he settled in pretty well,” manager Aaron Boone said of Cole, who bemoaned his three walks, which included Ha-Seong Kim (who came around to score in the second inning) and Matt Carpenter (who led off the seventh with a walk to set up Odor’s blast). 

With a seven-run third inning, the Yankees had given Cole a 7-3 lead to work with, and he bemoaned the fact he couldn’t better stay in the strike zone. 

“Three or four mistakes on the outing, a couple of pitch locations specifically and then a couple of at-bats that got away from me, specifically Carpenter and Kim earlier in the game,” said Cole, whose ERA has risen from 1.11 on April 27 to 2.93 on May 29. “So there’s some room for improvement.” 

On an afternoon when the Yankees chased Yu Darvish in the third inning, they did not need Cole to be at the top of his game.

When Cole was shutting down opponents during an April in which he was the American League pitcher of the month, he was compensating for a hurting Yankees offense. 

The offense returned the favor Sunday and improved to 10-2 in Cole starts this season. 

“Gerrit’s been carrying us for quite a few years and especially early on in the year,” Aaron Judge said of Cole, whose six runs allowed matched his season high. “Offense wasn’t really clicking the way we should, and he went out there every five days and was dominating. 

“There’s going to be games like this throughout the season where he doesn’t have his stuff and gives up a couple runs, but that’s where the offense, we gotta pick him up.”