MLB

Gerrit Cole booed off mound as Yankees get pummeled by Indians again

The Yankees couldn’t even count on Gerrit Cole to keep them in a game they sorely needed to win, and the antsy Bronx fans let him and this flailing team know about it.

The $324 million pinstriped ace heard boos while exiting the Stadium mound Sunday after getting pelted for a season-high tying seven earned runs, as the Indians blasted the sloppy Yankees for a second consecutive day, 11-1, at the Stadium.

After getting outscored Saturday and Sunday by an ugly 22-4 aggregate, the Yankees have slid 2 ½ games behind Boston and 1 ½ behind Toronto in the AL wild-card picture.

“It’s obviously been a thing that’s puzzled us the most this year. We’ve got to get better in a hurry. Period. That just wasn’t good enough today,” Aaron Boone said after his team lost for the 15th time in 22 games since its 13-game winning streak in August. “The important thing to remember is we’re not far off from where we were a couple of weeks ago, where we were running them off. But we’ve got to be better.

“That’s an awful couple of days out there. And we’ve got to get past it in a hurry. … We’ve got to play really good baseball if we’re even going to think about being where we want to be.”

The Yankees (83-67) also dropped to 3-3 to start a nine-game stretch played against three sub-.500 opponents, with the Rangers coming to The Bronx for three more beginning Monday night. The six games after that will be on the road against the Red Sox and the Blue Jays before the Yankees (83-67) finish the 162-game slate with three at home against the first-place Rays to start October.

Yankees Gerrit Cole
Gerrit Cole gave up seven earned runs in the Yankees’ loss to the Indians on Sept. 19, 2021. Robert Sabo

“Just couldn’t get that third out and couldn’t get the ball off the bat, I guess,” Cole said, adding that his recent hamstring problem was not an issue Sunday. “It wasn’t falling our way, but at the same time, it’s September. It’s a crucial game. And that was too many runs to come back from.”

Cole began the day in competition with Toronto’s Robbie Ray as the league’s leading Cy Young candidates, but the righty damaged his shot at his first major award by coughing up seven runs on 10 hits (his most in 40 starts as a Yankee) over 5 ²/₃ innings to raise his ERA from 2.75 to 3.03. He was booed as he headed to the dugout when Boone replaced him with lefty Lucas Luetge.

Yankees Gerrit Cole
Gerrit Cole was booed off the mound by Yankees fans during their loss to the Indians on Sept. 19, 2021. Robert Sabo

“It’s a bad game, man. That’s New York,” Cole said, adding that he felt like he let the team down. “I came in here to win a series and put it out of reach, so yeah, definitely.”

Cole (15-8) had pitched to a 1.35 ERA while giving up just five earned runs over his previous six outings since being activated from the COVID-19 list on Aug. 16. He matched that run total over Sunday’s first three innings, however, surrendering two runs in the first and three in the third.

Harold Ramirez accounted for four of those early RBIs, with a two-run single to right in the first and another to left-center — between diving outfielders Brett Gardner and Aaron Judge — two innings later. Roberto Perez added a run-scoring single later in the third for a quick five-run hole for Cole and the Yankees.

After Jose Ramirez and Perez took Cole deep in the fifth and sixth, respectively, Cleveland added an unearned run against Luetge in the seventh after an error by third baseman DJ LeMahieu. Ramirez drove in two more runs against Clarke Schmidt with his fourth hit of the game for a 10-1 lead one inning later.

The Yankees managed just one run — a solo homer by Gio Urshela — on six hits over six innings against Cleveland rookie Eli Morgan, who came in with a 2-7 record and a 6.03 ERA in his first 15 career starts. Boone compared the loss to “getting your teeth kicked in,” but he again declined to criticize his players’ “compete level” or desire to win.

“The last two days are awful, and we’ve got to get past it and play well,” Boone said. “If we play well, we can beat anyone. But we haven’t done it consistently enough.”