He’s the highest-paid pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB), but he’s as far from the Cy Young Award as you can get. Can Gerrit Cole (33, New York Yankees) capitalize on his third chance?
On Monday (Aug. 28), Cole took the mound against the Toronto Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and threw a complete game shutout, allowing just two hits over nine innings while striking out five.

On the day, Cole continued his dominance and didn’t allow the Toronto bats to reach base. His fastball was sitting at 95.7 miles per hour, about a mile below his season average (96.7 miles per hour), but he did a good job inducing contact with his primary weapon, his knuckleball.

After getting out of the first inning with a strikeout, Cole was in trouble in the second when he gave up a leadoff double to Brandon Belt, but he didn’t falter and retired the next two batters to keep the game scoreless. From there, it was cruise control. He retired a whopping 17 consecutive batters before getting hit again by Belt in the bottom of the seventh.

In the meantime, the Yankees’ bats came alive. Aaron Judge’s two-run homer in the top of the fourth inning made it 4-0, and Giancarlo Stanton’s RBI double with the bases loaded made it 4-0 in the next inning. The Yankees gave Cole some much-needed run support in the seventh inning when Judge blasted a two-run homer.
After throwing 93 pitches through eight innings, Cole took the mound in the ninth. After striking out the first batter he faced, Kevin Kiermaier, on a 97.1-mile-per-hour fastball, he retired George Springer and Beau Bichette on a straight hit to second base and a grounder to shortstop, respectively, to end the game. His total pitch count was just 105. After receiving a commemorative ball for his second complete game of the season, he hugged catcher Ben Roethlisberger and shared his joy.

The shutout added to Cole’s stellar season. In 33 games and 209 innings pitched this season, he has a 15-4 record with a 2.63 ERA. He has 222 strikeouts and a walks-per-hit-per-inning (WHIP) of just 0.98. He leads the American League in ERA and innings pitched, is second in wins, and third in strikeouts. 스포츠토토
Most notably, Cole’s Wins Above Replacement (WAR) ranks first in the majors at 6.9 according to Baseball Reference. His 4.8 WAR is also third in the American League according to Fangraphs, so Cole has been one of the top performers in the majors this season. As a result, most betting sites in the United States have Cole as the favorite for the American League Cy Young Award.

If Cole wins the award, it will be the first time in 22 years and the fifth time in Yankees history. Bobby Tully and Whitey Ford in 1958 and 1961 (combined), Sparky Lyle in 1977 and Ron Guidry in 1978, and Roger Clemens in 2001 after winning 20 games in the American League.
Cole as an individual