#gerrit-cole

#gerrit-cole

(Ashley Landis / Associated Press)

The most important pitches thrown off the Dodger Stadium mound Saturday happened when the stands were still empty, the gates still closed.Hours before the Dodgers' 6-3 loss to the New York Yankees, injured left-hander Julio Urías completed his biggest step yet in his recovery from a hamstring strain.

Michael Grove pitched well in his return from the 15-day injured list but surrendered two home runs to Jake Bauers, and it cost the Los Angeles Dodgers in a 6-3 loss to the New York Yankees.Like in Spring Training and his two starts while on rehab assignment with Triple-A Oklahoma City, Grove's fastball velocity was up and regularly touched 98 mph.

The Los Angeles Dodgers look to win their sixth consecutive home series as they face the New York Yankees in the second matchup of a three-game set, which is the first meeting between the two clubs since 2019.With a win Saturday or Sunday, the Dodgers would also clinch their first series win over the Yankees at Dodger Stadium since taking two of three games from June 18-20, 2004.

The Dodgers took the series opener 8-4 on Friday night, thanks to a dominant performance by Clayton Kershaw, Mookie Betts and the rest of the LA offense.The series continues this afternoon at Dodger Stadium with rookie starter Michael Grove (0-1, 8.44 ERA) coming off the injured list to make his first start in more than a month.

Red Sox COMMENTARYThese sorts of weekends are the ones that get the conversation flowing.When Red Sox manager Alex Cora yanked Kiké Hernández from the starting shortstop slot earlier in the week, he offered the sort of disorganized quote befitting a team still trying to prove itself something more than mediocre.

The Red Sox drew first blood at Yankee Stadium, and they can win the three-game series Saturday.Boston gave Gerrit Cole his first loss of the 2023 season as Garrett Whitlock and the bullpen helped get the Red Sox back on track.They will turn to Tanner Houck against a New York Yankees lineup that is searching for answers without Aaron Judge.

Red Sox Devers hit his seventh home run off Cole in his career on Friday.Rafael Devers had another big hit against Gerrit Cole in the Red Sox' 3-2 win over the Yankees on Friday.The 26-year-old star hit a 405-foot home run to left center off the Yankees' ace 90 mph changeup in the sixth inning to give the Red Sox a 2-0 lead at the time.

Likewise, the Red Sox's odds to win the American League went from +2500 to +5500 in a two-week stretch, while their odds to lock down the division went from +4000 to +10000.Obviously, this represents another opportunity to buy low on the Red Sox.But given their recent performance, and the performances of the teams in front of them in the standings, placing any futures wager on Boston would require you to swallow hard.

In a game featuring a starting pitching matchup of Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander, we got a pretty impressive pitching battle.Through the first six innings, Cole and Verlander were very good, putting up similar lines.Cole allowed one run on four hits in six innings, as he struck out eight batters.

Given a choice between a bedraggled, ill-mannered win and a jut-jawed, morally inviolate loss, you take the win every time.And the historical record will show that the Mets beat the Yankees Wednesday night, prevailing 4-3 in walkoff fashion in the 10th at Citi Field.But if you were watching, you know that "win" is stretching it.

It might only be June 12th, but the 93rd edition of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game is less than a month away.MLB is currently in the voting stage of determining starters, and Phase 1 began at the end of May.Now with close to two weeks of votes in, the league has released its first update on the leaders at each position.

Not everything went ideally for the Yankees last night, but the important thing is that they came away with a win.A couple slumping hitters came up with some big hits as the Yankees rallied from an early deficit to beat the Mets.Now tonight, they'll go for a sweep of the mini two-game Subway Series.

When a struggling team scores a thrilling victory especially in a packed ballpark against a crosstown rival before a day off the question just has to be asked: How big was this win?It's an irresistible question, even though let's be honest it's mostly meaningless.If the Mets had lost to the Yankees again on Wednesday night, they would not have given up on the season.

Baseball Prospectus | Daniel R. Epstein (subscription required): Anthony Volpe's season started off on a promising enough note; however, the rookie shortstop is going through some growing pains of late.He leads the team by a substantial margin with 77 strikeouts and is last among qualified hitters with a 68 DRC+ (BP's version of wRC+).

Gerrit Cole was unlikely to go the entire season without surrendering a home run.That does not make the recent surge in balls leaving the park against him any less alarming.If it weren't for Aaron Judge's historic home run chase last season, the dominant storyline of the campaign would've regarded Cole's propensity for giving up home runs.

The Yankees are back at home and welcoming both pairs of Sox this week, starting with the pale hose today.That's secondary to most fans' concerns at the moment, as we all await news on Aaron Judge's status and whether he'll need an IL stint or not.The captain took Sunday off and rested with the rest of the team on Monday, but a potential toe fracture after running into the wall in Dodger Stadium has us all wondering if the superstar's blazing hot streak will be temporarily sidelined.

After a so-so April, the Yankees were much improved in May.They went 19-10 in the month and had a couple double-digit run games, after the offense spent the latter half of April struggling.While things generally went well for the Yankees, that doesn't preclude there being any strange and funny moments.

The Yankees didn't come through Tuesday's big win over the Mets without concern.Worry has to be mounting about Luis Severino, who got lit up again and put the Yankees in a big hole.But the offense showed signs of life, with Anthony Volpe and DJ LeMahieu at least hinting that they could be pulling out of slumps.

Neither New York team is in the position they'd like to be at this point in the year, with the Yankees third and Mets fourth in their respective divisions.While it looked for a couple weeks like we might get a neo-1998 home run chase between Aaron Judge and Pete Alonso, both players now find themselves on the IL.

The latest edition of the Subway Series was already looking a little lackluster: The Mets (31-35) are not having nearly as good a season as the Yankees (38-29).But then the series experienced a huge power outage: Aaron Judge (toe) and Pete Alonso (wrist), who are leading their respective leagues in home runs, will both miss the series with injuries.

Scheduling made it so that the Yankees and Red Sox wouldn't meet until the second week of June, but they hit the ground running last night.The Red Sox won a 3-2 squeaker to open the weekend series, albeit with some ninth inning nail-biting on Kenley Jansen's part.The pitch clock brought a refreshing pace to a matchup that invariably turned into a slog in years past.

It is very strange that it has taken so long in 2023 for us to get the first edition of Yankees vs. Red Sox.For the record, I'm not complaining.These games always feel extra stressful for all parties involved, and 19 times is just too many against one opponent.I was a big fan of MLB balancing the schedule a little bit more, and another huge change for 2023 is sure to have an impact on these showdowns too: the pitch clock.

"I can't speak to the hatred 15, 20 years ago, but I would say there's not much of that now," Gerrit Cole, who is scheduled to pitch Friday, told FOX Sports."We want to beat them just as badly as we want to beat Baltimore.And even though it is more unique in the sense of the history, I'm not sure how much we carry that baggage with us."

The Los Angeles Dodgers fell to the New York Yankees 6-3 on Saturday, tying the series at one heading into the finale on Sunday Night Baseball.Michael Grove looked sharp in his return to the mound (outside of two mistakes), while Gerrit Cole dominated before an early exit made the game interesting.Also, the Dodgers may be in the market for a new outfield wall, but we'll get to that later.

The Dodgers (35-24) went 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position in the 6-3 loss to the Yankees (35-25) Saturday evening at Dodger Stadium.The Yankees once again flexed their power with four home runs to tie up the series against the Dodgers.Outside of the two bad pitches Grove cruised over the plate to Jake Bauers, his velocity was surprisingly way up in his return from the injured list.

The Yankees knew that they had some dicey weeks ahead once they learned of Aaron Judge's toe injury.It's hard to replace the defending MVP in a lineup that revolves around him.Often, it feels like something is just missing to these Yankees rallies.That was the case on Friday, as New York scratched out nine hits but only ended up plating a pair of runs (one on a solo homer).

After a messy, complicated series with the White Sox, the Yankees take on the red variety this weekend, welcoming Boston to Yankee Stadium for the first time this year.Entering this series the Red Sox are one game under .500,last place in the AL, and although the offense has been above average, their record has been dragged down by a truly poor pitching staff.

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across Major League Baseball.Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in New York Yankees fans and fans across the country.Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.The Yankees are back home this week, and starting pitching (and Aaron Judge's status) is understandably front of mind.

The Yankees and Dodgers have lived up to their marquee matchup so far, trading blows in the first two games.Yesterday was the Yankees' opportunity to even the score, taking the game on the backs of Gerrit Cole shoving and Aaron Judge displaying all of his incredible skill.Also, Jake Bauers decided to have a career day!