Gerrit Cole Strikes Out 11 But Falls to Pirates Again as Yankees Ace Battles Home Run Trouble

Gerrit Cole authored one of the most electric outings of his comeback season on Wednesday, striking out 11 Pittsburgh Pirates and retiring the first 14 batters he faced in the opener of a Yankee Stadium doubleheader — only to walk away with another loss after two solo home runs erased his brilliance. The right-hander’s collision of dominance and misfortune has made him one of the most searched names in American sports on Wednesday, as fans debate whether the Yankees’ $324 million ace is finally rounding back into form or still searching for the results to match his stuff.

Cole, the 2023 AL Cy Young Award winner and six-time All-Star, has been on one of the more scrutinized comeback arcs in baseball this year. He missed the entire 2025 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery last spring, a 569-day absence from a big-league mound before he finally returned to the Yankees’ rotation on May 22. Wednesday’s start carried extra symbolism: Cole faced the Pirates, the franchise that made him the No. 1 overall pick in the 2011 draft before he blossomed into a perennial ace elsewhere.

A Perfect Start Unravels on Two Swings

For 4 2/3 innings, Cole looked every bit like the pitcher who signed a nine-year, $324 million deal with New York in December 2019. He carved through Pittsburgh’s lineup with swing-and-miss stuff, retiring the first 14 hitters he saw and racking up strikeout after strikeout without issuing a single walk. The perfection ended when Nick Gonzales rifled a two-out single to left in the fifth, and two batters later Jacob Gonzalez turned a hanging changeup into a two-run homer that put Pittsburgh on top. Cole responded by striking out the side to escape the frame, but the damage was on the board.

He returned for the sixth and seventh innings and kept pumping strikeouts — finishing with 11 punchouts and zero walks over six innings — but Jacob Gonzalez struck again in the seventh, taking Cole deep for a second time to make it 2-0. With the Yankees again failing to generate offense behind him, Cole was on the hook for his fifth loss in his last six decisions, a stretch in which he’s posted a bloated 5.33 ERA despite frequently missing bats. Bettors tracking the market shifts around Yankees pitching matchups can check the latest DraftKings promo code for how sportsbooks are pricing New York’s rotation in real time.

The Bigger Picture for New York’s Rotation

Wednesday marked a milestone moment for the Yankees beyond just one box score. Cole started the day-night doubleheader opener while left-hander Max Fried, also working his way back from injury, took Game 2 — the first time the two front-line starters have shared a Yankees rotation turn since Fried arrived last season. New York entered the twin bill having already taken the series opener 8-5 on Monday, giving manager Aaron Boone a chance to stack his top two arms in the same day for the first time all year.

For Cole individually, the swings in performance have become the story of his season. He opened his comeback with a pair of scoreless starts in May, including a 10-strikeout, no-walk gem against Kansas City that ranks among the best of his Yankees career. But June brought a rough patch — a 6.12 ERA over five starts as opponents hit .286 against him — before he stabilized again in July with three straight quality starts prior to Wednesday. The strikeout numbers have never wavered; the results around them have been the inconsistent part, largely tied to a handful of costly home runs and a Yankees offense that has too often left him with no cushion.

Cole is now 3-5 on the season with a 3.93 ERA, numbers that undersell just how frequently he’s missing bats as he continues rebuilding arm strength and command after the long layoff. With the Yankees fighting to close the gap in the American League East race, how Cole finishes the summer — and whether New York’s lineup finally starts backing him — will go a long way toward determining whether his 2026 comeback is remembered as a triumph or a what-if season.