This story was originally published by Dead Spin
Yankees right-hander Gerrit Cole looks to cap an impressive August when New York visits the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night.
Cole (5-2, 3.72 ERA) is 2-0 with a 1.17 ERA in four starts this month. He has allowed 17 hits and nine walks in 23 innings but has limited the damage thanks in part to 24 strikeouts. New York is 3-1 in his outings.
Last time out, Cole tossed six scoreless innings against the Cleveland Guardians in a 6-0 win on Thursday . The 33-year-old veteran gave up one hit, walked five and fanned two while earning career win No. 150.
“He looked great, and I think he’s been feeling good the last few starts,” teammate Giancarlo Stanton said of Cole, who missed the first 2 1/2 months of the season due to issue with his throwing elbow.
Cole is 4-2 with a 2.79 ERA in seven starts against the Nationals.
His mound opponent on Tuesday will be Washington veteran Patrick Corbin (3-12, 5.73 ERA).
Corbin celebrated a milestone in his last start when he defeated the Colorado Rockies for his 100th career win. In six innings on Thursday, he allowed one run on four hits while walking one and striking out a season-high eight in one of his best starts of the season.
The left-hander went 14-7 with a 3.25 ERA for Washington in 2019 and was the winning pitcher in Game 7 of the World Series. Since then, he is 30-69 with a 5.64 ERA as he nears the end of a six-year, $140 million contract.
“What I can say about Patrick is, the guy competes,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. “He goes out there every five days, takes the ball, will give us 110 pitches if we ask him to. He’s been awesome.”
Corbin is 1-0 with a 2.84 ERA in four career starts vs. the Yankees.
New York’s Aaron Judge did not add to his season total of 51 home runs Monday night. In fact, the trio of Judge, Juan Soto and Stanton went a combined 1-for-13 with two walks. The one hit was by Judge, who singled in the ninth inning for career hit No. 1,000.
It didn’t matter as the rest of the lineup picked up the slack in a 5-2 New York win. Gleyber Torres, Austin Wells and Jazz Chisholm Jr. homered for the Yankees, who have won five of six. Anthony Volpe and Alex Verdugo had three hits each.
Judge made the play of the game in center, robbing a potential two-run homer off the bat of Andres Chaparro in the fourth inning and turning it into a double play.
“I called (the robbery) his 52nd homer of the year,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “He’s really good at this stuff. A night they keep him in the ballpark, he takes one back from the other side. It’s just a little reminder of how many other things he does well.”
Washington prospect Dylan Crews made his major league debut in the loss. The 22-year-old outfielder went 0-for-3 with a walk.
“Playing against the Yankees, and playing against Judge and Soto for the first time, it was a pretty surreal moment going out there,” Crews said. “And obviously playing with my new team I’m playing on now, the Nationals, it’s a great feeling. I’m just going to come out (Tuesday) and do it all over again.”
–Field Level Media
