MINNEAPOLIS — Instead of walking to the back of the mound as he usually does, Gerrit Cole stood at the front of the mound and just stared at Josh Donaldson for a few seconds. He’d got the Twins third baseman to swing on a 86-mile an hour knuckle curveball in the first inning at Target Field for a strikeout.
Then Cole reached up and lifted the brim of his cap as he watched the man who had called him out, accusing him of cheating, walk back to his dugout.
Cole again would not directly answer questions about the allegations, saying a press conference was not the “forum,” for players to discuss what MLB has decided is the urgent problem of sticky stuff.