Gerrit Cole picked up his league-leading 12th win on Sunday, even though things weren’t going well for him early on. Sure, if the Pirates hadn’t strung together a huge fifth inning, we’d be talking about a disappointing outing, but you certainly have to give Cole credit for finding another gear and mowing his way through the eighth after the Bucs grabbed the lead. Two eight-inning starts in a row plus two Melancon saves…that’s a pretty good formula.
Cole is the first Pirate to reach 12 wins before the break since 1974 (Ken Brett) … and he’ll still get one more start in next week.