Pirates Top Pick Gerrit Cole Cruises, Then Stalls in AFL Debut

The first time through the order Pittsburgh Pirates top pick Gerrit Cole was cruising.

After two innings, Cole has thrown 30 pitches with 22 going for strikes.  He allowed one hit and had struckout two.  His debut performance was looking very good for the hard throwing right hander.

In the third inning Cole got his fifth groundout of the game, but it would be the last out he would record on the day.

A Tyler Bortnick single was followed by a few pickoff attempts by Cole, but Bortnick was able to swipe second as Cole fell behind 3-0 against Kevin Mattison.  Cole fired two strikes to get the count to full, but couldn’t put the leadoff hitter away.  Mattison fouled off four pitches before getting a walk.

2008 Rays first pick Tim Beckham then doubled to left field on Cole’s first pitch which was 97 miles per hour (according to Keith Law.)  The double plated Bortnick and Mattison and sent Cole to the showers.

His official line was 2.1 innings pitched with three hits allowed and three runs. (Reliever Lambert allowed the inherited runner to score.)

Cole struckout two and allowed one walk.  He also hit 100 on the radar gun.

Pile up those pitches kid…..pile ’em up.