Houston Astros: Gerrit Cole responds to doubters with career-best start

When the Houston Astros traded for Gerrit Cole this past offseason, more boos appeared on twitter than cheers. After Sunday’s performance on the bump, Cole likely convinced some fans that he might not be a bust.

The Astros made one blockbuster move this past offseason, but it nearly received more criticism than praise. Baseball fans in and outside of Houston lambasted the front office, proclaiming that Gerrit Cole was overrated and a subpar acquisition.

The former Pirates ace responded by tossing a seven-inning gem in his team debut. The performance was arguably the best by an Astros pitcher in their opening series.

Cole’s numbers undeniably trended downward throughout the past two years. He posted a then-career-high ERA, along with a career-high WHIP in 2016. With an opportunity to rebound, the UCLA product instead boasted an even worse 4.26 ERA and his worst home runs allowed rate.

Surely, experts and analysts presumed Cole would receive more run support – hence more wins – in the Lone Star State. Nevertheless, while that was true in Sunday’s affair, he also exhibited his potential and his perplexing stuff.

Houston’s new starter is still just 27 years old, and he’s already got nearly 800 innings under his belt. He demonstrated his ability in 2015, when he finished fourth in the National League Cy Young race.

Even though he took a few steps backward, this could be the beginning of a transition in his career. He has the backing of some analysts and observers on social media. 

Clearly a small sample size cannot predict such gaudy numbers. However, fans should be quite happy to this point to see that he overcame any form of the yips in his opening start, especially against a division – and state – rival.

A few takeaways from Cole’s outing

The former first round pick isn’t known for his overpowering stuff. He has not averaged more than nine strikeouts per nine innings before in his career. His velocity has also dipped each season.

Cole then proceeded to hit 97 mph on the radar multiple times while inducing more swinging strikes than any other outing in his career. You read that correctly.

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The Astros pitcher compiled 10 or more strikeouts just six times in his career prior to the weekend. He notched 11 against the Rangers on Sunday. More impressively, he accrued his final three strikeouts in his last inning of work.

Cole tossed 17 first-pitch strikes out of 25 at-bats, which is 68 percent. Though he still managed to walk three hitters, he yielded just two hits and one run, his best performance in a season debut.

He had one blemish from the seven innings – a relatively short home run surrendered to Joey Gallo off a 0-1 slider. Cole’s off-speed pitches were crushed last season, resulting in 21 home runs from his opposition. That could be one red flag moving forward.

Still, Houston fans must be happy to see the young pitcher take a giant step forward in just his first start of the season. Cole has the tools and ability to reclaim his status as an ace pitcher, even in the middle of the rotation.

Next: Morton gets the call in the Astros' home-opener

And if anything, the doubters will only fuel his desire to succeed and prove them wrong.