Gerrit Cole takes the mound for the Yankees on Saturday against the Astros, toeing the rubber in Houston for the first time since playing for his former team in the 2019 World Series, but the Astros play-by-play announcer anticipates a warm greeting for the All-Star.
“Huge ovation,” Todd Kalas told WFAN’s Kim Jones on Friday. “Huge ovation, absolutely. Every player that has come back through that’s been a part of the Astros playoff history has gotten a huge ovation, and Gerrit was beloved when he was here, even though it was a short amount of time, just two years, but he will get a huge ovation, absolutely.”
Cole was an All-Star both years with the Astros, leading the league with a 2.50 ERA in 2019 before Houston fell just short of another World Series title, but he then left to sign a record-breaking deal with the rival Yankees, who are even more of a foe now after the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, which led to a heightened level of hostility towards the Astros when they visited Yankee Stadium earlier this year.
But Kalas doesn’t expect the same treatment towards Cole specifically, who remains the best pitcher he ever saw in an Astros uniform, including Justin Verlander.
“I watched those guys pitch in 2019,” Kalas said. “Verlander won the Cy Young…it could have easily went the other way. Gerrit Cole could have easily with 30 different voters have won 17 of the 30 votes and won the Cy Young Award. He was that good.
“There have been some great pitchers in the five years I’ve been here in Houston, but Gerrit Cole was and still is my favorite starter I’ve ever called games for. He would get on the mound and he would get locked in and so primal that he would emasculate hitters at times. You would know there was a 100 mph fastball coming, the hitters knew there was a 100 mph fastball coming, and there was nothing the hitter could do about it.”
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Cole hasn’t looked like his 2019 self of late, pitching to a 4.47 ERA over his last nine starts, as he has become one of the faces of the league’s sticky substance crackdown following a depleted spin rate and a notable non-answer when asked by a reporter if he had ever used Spider Tack.
“I’ve looked at the numbers,” Kalas said. “I can’t say I’ve watched him live since all of this went down where MLB changed the rules midseason. I’ve looked at the numbers, and they’re certainly vastly different. It’s unfortunate. I think it would have been a lot more fair to the entire league had they come down with a ruling before or after the season. Asking guys to make an adjustment midseason has been very difficult on some, and Gerrit was an outspoken member of that fraternity.”
Kalas won’t be seeing the same Cole that he watched in 2019, but he will be watching closely to see how the ace continues to adjust in the post-crackdown world, starting with his first road start against his former team on Saturday.
“I’m curious to see live what happens with Gerrit on Saturday, but it has been glaring lately that he and [Aroldis] Chapman have certainly struggled lately,” Kalas said.
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