Gerrit Cole seemed to be trending back up in his last couple games, and the hope was that he could get the Pirates off to a good start to this key stretch on the road against the division….but uh, that didn’t happen. There were some bloopers and bleeders and some bad plays on defense, but Cole was largely ineffective and hit hard early.
Hard to say what the problem was other than the Brewers just being aggressive and getting to him quickly. It’s fair to be a little concerned about the Pirate ace as he hasn’t been great in the second half and they appear to be headed to a one-game situation where they’ll need to rely on him against another great pitcher.