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Gerrit Cole OK with Pirates delaying his next start: 'I feel great right now'

By Stephen J. Nesbitt / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 8 years ago


RHP Gerrit Cole (USA Today)

CINCINNATI — Gerrit Cole didn’t especially want to spend his 25th birthday chatting with reporters about having his next start skipped — right on the heels of a dominant performance against the first-place St. Louis Cardinals — but Cole obliged and spoke openly, saying he understood why he was being set down, and he’ll take the extra days off as “an opportunity to reset.”

Cole is 16-8 with a 2.54 ERA in 28 starts this season. The cause for concern is that his innings count, currently at 180 1/3 innings, is creeping near his career-high for a professional season (185 1/3 in 2013).

“I feel great right now,” Cole said. “It's an opportunity to save some bullets, I guess. It wasn't my decision. … [The manager’s] job is to manage the big picture. My job is to pitch when he tells me to pitch."

Clint Hurdle and Ray Searage determined this would be a good time to give Cole a breather, like they did in mid-July around the All-Star break, and line him up for the home stretch. He will start in a Sept. 15 doubleheader against the Chicago Cubs.

“The target date on the other side is significant,” Hurdle said, “because it does put him, if needed, in a position to pitch against the Cubs, the Dodgers, the Cubs, and the Cardinals, and the lineup for the wild-card game, if necessary, or the division series.”

Hearing that lineup of teams, Cole smiled and said, “I'd better be sharp.”

Asked how he’d counsel Cole on how to be OK about hitting the pause button for a moment, veteran right-hander A.J. Burnett, once a fiery and competitive young pitcher himself, laughed and replied, “I don't know what I would say, because a young A.J. Burnett, we didn't get managed. We just kept throwing. I don't know. It's a different game.

“Obviously, it's more than he's ever thrown. He's got to take that into consideration. He's a big, big, big key to us going far. He'll be ready. He'll be fine.”

The Pirates started lining up their big gun around their off day Aug. 31. They used the extra day to flip Cole’s and Jeff Locke’s starts, setting Cole up to pitch against the Cardinals on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball. He spun a gem, giving up two hits over seven scoreless innings, but he knew the other half of the bargain was coming yet. He was going to have a start skipped.

After going on the disabled list twice in 2014, Cole knows he’s fortunate and has worked hard to be in this position come mid-September, a position in which it pains him a little to get a start pushed back.

“It's been a good run so far,” he said. “This is the highest-pressure point of the season, and it's only going to get even more dramatic as we move along. We're going to have to stay diligent with the routine, just like we have all year, try not to change anything. But understand the surroundings have changed somewhat. That's probably why these decisions are being made.”

Cole said he pays attention to his innings count, too, even if it doesn’t worry him.

“It wouldn't be very diligent if I didn't pay attention to where I'm at in the season right now,” he said. “Close to uncharted territory, pretty much.”


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