On a night where Aaron Judge passed New York Yankees legend Roger Maris for the most home runs in a single season by an American League hitter, Gerrit Cole made some history of his own.
In the bottom of the first inning, with the Yankees ahead of the Texas Rangers 1-0 following Judge’s historic home run, Cole struck out Nathaniel Lowe to set the single-season record for strikeouts by a Yankees pitcher.
Cole would go on to strike out eight more hitters over six innings of three-run ball, taking a hard-luck loss, but bumping his total of strikeouts on the season up to 257.
So much Yankee history tonight!
Gerrit Cole set the single-season club record for strikeouts! 👏 pic.twitter.com/Qo0HVrU32s
— MLB (@MLB) October 5, 2022
Cole Makes History Of His Own
So much Yankees history was made last night.
While Judge’s home run takes the cake and will overshadow everything else, you can’t just overlook what Cole was able to do.
Cole has always been a big strikeout pitcher and he put that on full display last night at Globe Life Field in Arlington.
It’s unfortunate that it will be overshadowed, but it doesn’t make it any less important or impressive.
That’s good news for the Yankees heading into the postseason.
One would assume that Cole would be the Yanks’ Game 1 starter in the ALDS.
If that’s his final tune-up before October, then it’s a pretty good one.
With the loss, Cole dropped to 13-8 on the season and watched his ERA climb to 3.50, but it didn’t take away from his historic accomplishment or the fact that he managed to strike out nine batters in total.
There was a lot of Yankees history being made last night, and Cole was lucky enough to have been a part of it in addition to Judge’s 62nd home run.
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