HOUSTON (SportsRadio 610)- Early in his first spring training as member of the Astros, Gerrit Cole had a conversation with new teammates Justin Verlander and Dallas Keuchel. Cole thought he needed to be able to strikeout more hitters and he wanted to know how the two former Cy Young Award winners went about that.
On Wednesday, Cole became the first Astro in 33 years to strikeout 300 batters in a season, which allowed him to reflect on that conversation.
"We sat down for a handful of hours, whether it be at the field or over a dinner, and here we are at 300 strikeouts in a season," Cole said after the Astros 3-2 win against the Rangers on Wednesday.
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Cole struck out 8.4 batters per nine innings in five seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates. That number has spiked to close to 13 per nine innings with the Astros. The first pick of the 2011 draft always flashed ace potential with the Pirates, but after just one top five Cy Young finish in Western Pennsylvania, the righty has realized that promise in Houston.
"Our entire team was excited for him," Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. "He's been a workhorse for us the entire year. These performances he just rattles off is not easy, he makes it look a lot easier than it is, but it starts with his preparation and ends with his execution, and his intensity is unmatched."
Entering the night with 292 strikeouts, Cole's 300th punch out of the season came via a 1-2 changeup to Shin-Soo Choo, ending the Rangers sixth inning, though he might've been the last to know it.
"I didn't know that, that was the one," he said. "I thought I had seven."
Cole realized he hit his mark when he saw the ovation from the 38,417 fans at Minute Maid Park, which meant a lot to him in his final home start of the 2019 regular season.
"I don't typically think about these things, but I did want to try to get it done tonight here in front of our fans," Cole said. "They've come out in large numbers all year, and they're so much fun to play in front of, and it was just a blessing to be able to get it done tonight."
Gerrit Cole on #Astros W tonight and how important it was for him to get his 300th K at home #TakeItBack pic.twitter.com/jQo3MAxJeU
— SportsRadio 610 (@SportsRadio610) September 19, 2019With just nine games left before the end of the regular season, Cole will likely get the ball Tuesday night in Seattle, and possibly again five days later in Anaheim before the start of the Astros postseason run. With free agency coming this winter, it could mark the end of 29-year old's time with the Astros. If that's the case and he cashes in on a $200 million contract he'll look back at that early conversation with two new teammates as a big reason why.
"There's a skill that you can't quantify analytically. It's the type of person, the type of teammates we have here, and the baseball knowledge of just experience and reading swings, reading body language, preparation, how to become convicted, how to have a gameplan, and we're always communicating around here trying to figure out to get better, and when you have really good players you know you're getting really good information, and we've been fortunate to have guys that are super, humble, and really gracious with their time to just kind of pour into everybody and just try to be as cohesive as a unit as we can, and it shows up in the personal numbers kind of across the board."
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