Bucs ace Cole whiffs 10 Mets

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

Gerrit Cole was in Noah Syndergaard’s shoes in 2013, anointed the next big thing and freighted with the weight of outsized expectations.

Now in his third year in the majors, Cole is in the process of exceeding them all.

The Pittsburgh Pirates ace-in-waiting struck out 10 over 81/3 dominant innings and his teammates pecked at Syndergaard just enough to pull out a 4-1 win on Friday night. Cole (6-2) gave up six hits — all singles — while lowering his ERA to 2.05.

“When he’s executing pitches, he’s as good as anybody out there,” Pittsburgh catcher Chris Stewart said.

And the 24-year-old’s 50th start in the majors may have been his best. Save for a wild pitch that allowed Juan Lagares to score an unearned run in the third, Cole overwhelmed the Mets. His only hiccup came in the ninth, when he came within two outs of his first complete game only to be undone by a single and his only walk of the night.

There was no protest from Cole when manager Clint Hurdle came out to get him in favor of closer Mark Melancon. Not that Hurdle would have listened anyway.

“He was on DL twice last year,” Hurdle said. “He threw 111 pitches. He had a shot to close it down. It didn’t happen there. He’ll do that one of these days.”

Melancon retired the only two batters he faced for his 11th save. Stewart had two hits and an RBI for Pittsburgh. Jung Ho Kang, Pedro Alvarez and Gregory Polanco also drove in runs as the Pirates dropped New York to 7-13 on the road.

“Even up in the ninth inning, [Cole] is still throwing 97,” New York manager Terry Collins said. “Slider was absolutely devastating at times in the middle of the game. We knew going in he was going to be tough to hit.”

The scuffling Pirates have relied heavily on Cole to become the stopper during an uneven opening quarter of the season. Cole halted Pittsburgh’s latest slide with his longest start of the season, keeping the Mets off balance with a fastball that topped out at 99 mph and a rapidly improving breaking ball. His defense chipped in whenever the Mets appeared ready to mount a threat, turning four double plays. Stewart also threw out two runners trying to steal second base, boosting Pittsburgh’s caught stealing total to 20, the best in the majors.

“We played a game we’ve played a handful of times before and we need to play more of,” Cole said. “We were crisp on both sides of the ball and got results because of it.”

Syndergaard (1-2) struck out the first four batters he faced and fanned five in his third career start but surrendered four runs, three earned, in six innings.