Gerrit Cole earned his 150th career win but also received his second pitch clock violation in five weeks.
Cole was penalized by plate umpire Derek Thomas for taking too long during warmups before the second inning in the New York Yankees’ 6-0 victory over Cleveland. He talked briefly but animated with Thomas before manager Aaron Boone joined the conversation.
Rookie Jhonkensy Noel, who was not in the batter’s box when the violation occurred, was given an automatic ball and walked on three pitches.
The penalty didn’t affect Cole, who allowed just one hit in six innings and reached 150 career wins, becoming the fourth active pitcher to do so.
The violation happened after Austin Wells struck out for the last out of the first inning.
“Usually when the catcher makes the last out, there’s some extra time before the next inning starts,” Boone explained. “Wells got out there a bit ahead of time, but it seemed like we were penalized for trying to speed things up. It felt a bit overly strict.”
Cole had a similar violation on July 19 against Tampa Bay. In that game, he didn’t complete his final warm-up pitch until there were 20 seconds left on the pitch clock, and he got into a heated exchange with umpire Quinn Wolcott before pitching six innings.
“We tried to speed up the game, and it didn’t quite work out,” Cole said. “The call was correct according to the rules.”
