GERRIT COLE CAN SAY 'SAYONARA' TO THE CY YOUNG NOW

I don't put a lot of emphasis on individual awards because I keep my eye on the real prize....a World Series trophy. But even though most of us are super focused on winning the series against the Blue Jays and making it into the postseason, some are also focused on the Cy Young award.

The two favorites for the AL Cy Young are playing in this series and baseball is focused on Jays starter Robbie Ray and our own Gerrit Cole. We watched Cole pitch last night, and we will see Ray pitch tonight against Corey Kluber. If Ray pitches a better game then Cole did....he may be the standout favorite.

It would be nice to see Cole win the Cy Young, but that's something you have to earn and two of his last three starts have been clunkers now. He's struggled in some big games and he did again last night, too. Aside from the stats, here is a good visual for proof.

We could all tell early on, Cole was not on his game and the Blue Jays sat back and capitalized on his mistakes. He did finally settle down after the first couple of innings but by then the damage was done. Cole threw 19 pitches in a two-run first inning and 13 of those pitches were four-seam fastballs. The Blue Jays made contact with 7 of them and put 6 in play including a ball that was right down the middle to Marcus Semien who did not miss. Bo Bichette also had a big night with two home runs including the go-ahead run to win the game. You cannot pitch middle-middle to the Blue Jays and walk away unscathed. They are too good offensively.

Cole's final line for the night looked like this: 6 IP, 5 ER, 6K and 2 HR. Cole allowed 7 extra-base hits last night. He gave up the most extra-base hits on his four-seamer in ANY game he's ever pitched. The Yankees scored 5 runs, that should be enough to win a game. The offense did not fail Cole this time. They have in the past but this time the offense bailed him out when they tied the game and he failed the team by putting them behind in the first place. 

Cole is our ace and we need to rely on him especially in these big games as we fight for postseason berth. He said last night he would be ready to pitch the last game of the season on short rest if needed. The question here shouldn't be "will he be available?" it is "should we trust him and take that risk?" Two of his last three starts have not been good.

We want and need to see Cole pitch well, but that hasn't happened lately and because of that I think he can kiss any hope of a Cy Young award goodbye. Hopefully we haven't kissed the postseason goodbye, because right now that's the ONLY thing that matters and the gap is closer now that the Blue Jays and the Red Sox won last night. 

  --Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa

     BYB Senior Managing Editor

    Twitter: @nyprincessj