Red Wings weather Gerrit Cole, walk it off 2-1 in front of record crowd

BY DAN GLICKMAN

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – In the most-attended regular season game in Innovative Field’s history, where reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole made a rehab start against them, the Rochester Red Wings were consistently stymied, leaving eight men on base and striking out a season high 16 times… until the bottom of the ninth, when small ball sent the crowd of 13,605 home happy with a 2-1 victory.

“With good pitching and good defense, it only takes one good inning to win a ballgame,” said second baseman Jackson Cluff, who scored the walk-off run on a one-out sacrifice fly by third baseman Erick Mejia.

“And it all came together in the ninth for us.”

Cluff led off the final frame by drawing a walk and then took off for second on the first pitch of Brady Lindsly‘s at-bat. The Colorado native beat the throw to second and then got tangled up with shortstop Jeter Downs, who had to lean to keep the throw from going into the outfield. Lindsly laid a sacrifice bunt later in the at-bat to get Cluff to third.

Mejia worked a 3-2 count against Scranton reliever Phil Bickford before finally connecting on a ball to right field. Cluff raced home to score, ending the game and evening the series with Scranton at two games a piece.

VIEW MORE PHOTOS FROM JOE TERRITO.

The walk-off celebration ended a game that began with all the attention on the opposing team and their 6’4″ starter. As the ace of the locally beloved New York Yankees, Cole was a major reason for the historic crowd, which trails only a 1997 exhibition with Cal Ripken Jr. and the Baltimore Orioles for total attendance at a baseball game (13,723).

Nobody could blame them for coming to see Cole: the 33-year-old has been one of the best pitchers of his generation since being drafted first overall by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2014, going 145-75 with a 3.17 ERA in 300 games and 1859 innings pitched, striking out 2152. A six-time All-Star, the UCLA alum joined the Yankees before the 2020 series on a franchise record nine-year, $324 million deal. However, after winning the Cy Young last season, he was laid low in spring training by nerve inflammation and edema. Friday was his third rehab appearance: his two previous starts came for the AA Somerset Patriots last week, where he worked eight total innings across the two games, allowing one earned run.

He didn’t disappoint on Friday. Primarily utilizing his four-seam fastball and his cutter, Cole dominated Red Wings batters through much of his 4.1 innings pitched, striking out 10 Red Wings while allowing two hits and an unearned run on 70 pitches, 46 for strikes and 22 of them swing-and-misses. He did not allow a walk.

The start continued the Californian’s excellence against Rochester. In 2014, the then-Pirate made two rehab starts against the Wings for the Indianapolis Indians, winning both games while throwing 11 scoreless innings and allowing six hits. Should Friday prove to be Cole’s last game against the Red Wings in his career, he ends it with 15.1 innings pitched, seven hits allowed, an unearned run, three walks, 20 strikeouts, and a hit-by-pitch.

However, for much of his start, he was matched on the mound by Rochester righty Joan Adon, who went five innings while striking out six and allowing four hits and an earned run on a Downs solo home run in the third. He found himself in a difficult position in the fifth, walking the bases loaded, but escaped the situation with a strikeout of Ben Rice to end the inning.

“He came out of the gate throwing the ball over the plate, he lost some command there later, but I’m really happy he got through the fifth with the game tied,” said Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy.

Cole, meanwhile, made only two mistakes.

The first came in the opening inning when shortstop Jack Dunn turned on a 95 MPH fastball near the center of the zone and sent it rocketing at 106 MPH into left, just out of the reach of a diving Taylor Trammell for a one-out double.

The second- and the only one that allowed a run- came in the fourth. Dunn had again reached second, thanks to an error by Scranton first baseman Ben Rice, but Cole recovered to strike out the next two batters. With two outs and an 0-2 count, it appeared he was headed to a third straight punchout when first baseman Riley Adams got hold of a 96 MPH fastball near the middle and sent it through a hole on the right side of the infield, bringing in Dunn to tie the game, 1-1. Neither team would score after that until the walk-off in the ninth, despite the Red Wings getting a man to third in the sixth, seventh, and eighth.

By then, Cole was long gone. It had been reported that he’d have a 70-pitch limit, and the Yankees kept him on that limit to the letter, removing him with a 1-1 count against Lindsly with one out in the fifth to a standing ovation.

Speaking after his removal, Cole seemed optimistic that he’d be back on the Yankees’ active roster for their upcoming series with the Baltimore Orioles, but he said no decision had been made.

“We’ve got to make a decision in the next 24, 48 hours, but I did really good work today,” he said. “I used all the pitches well, got to pretty much every location, so it’s another good step in the right direction.”

Cole, who grew up a Yankee fan and whose father grew up in Syracuse, also expressed gratitude to local Yankee fans for coming out to support him.

“It was a packed house, a fun night, beautiful upstate New York,” he said. “It’s a special feeling when you go somewhere and your fans come out and support you. We don’t often get to come around these parts, the last time the big club was up here was in COVID, when we were playing [the Blue Jays] in Buffalo. It’s nice to see those people, and it feels really special that they came out and supported us.”

The throngs of Yankee fans at Friday’s game continued a history of large crowds for appearances by Yankees starters. Before Friday, the stadium regular-season record for attendance was 13,584 for an Andy Pettitte rehab assignment for the Scranton team during a 2012 season when that club was based in Rochester while its stadium in Pennsylvania was under renovation. The highest regular-season Red Wings game attendance before Friday also featured a Yankees starter: Hideki Irabu drew 13,485 on June 30, 1997.

Like those games, Friday night’s contest will likely live on in the memory of Red Wings fans- and those who work for the club.

“Everything just came together so beautifully for us,” said Red Wings President and CEO Naomi Silver post-game. “On the most beautiful night of the summer so far, playing this excellent team, against this wonderful pitcher, giving this opportunity to our fans was amazing, and to come out on top at the end?”

“There’s nothing better than baseball, how can you not love it?”

The Red Wings (34-31) continue their series against Scranton on Saturday at 6:45 P.M., with righty Spenser Watkins (3-2, 4.43 ERA) scheduled to take the mound against a Scranton pitcher to be announced. The first 2,000 fans will receive a free specialty hat. In addition, there will be post-game fireworks.