The New York Yankees kicked off their 2022 postseason Tuesday night with a 5-3 victory at home over the Cleveland Guardians.
Their ace, Gerrit Cole, led the way by giving up just one run in 6 1/3 innings and he racked up 8 strike outs while being fully in control of all of his pitches.
While we’ve seen pitchers throwing serious heat all over the place this season, some of Cole’s most impressive pitches didn’t top 85 mph and still had Cleveland hitters looking silly.
Cole’s knuckle curveballs were absolutely beautiful in Game 1. Let’s take a look at a few of them for proof of that and also because these are really fun to watch.
Josh Naylor had no shot at these two knuckle curveballs.
Gerrit Cole, Filthy Knuckle Curves. 😷 pic.twitter.com/FxaZ8ihOUd
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) October 11, 2022
These two on strike outs in the sixth inning were sweet, too.
I love how quickly he walked off the mound after his eight strike out:
Gerrit Cole, Filthy Knuckle Curves. 😷
7th and 8th Ks. pic.twitter.com/DkziZ37rHK
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) October 12, 2022
Fans were rightfully in awe.
Flat out impossible when you’re sitting on either 100mph or a 90mph slider https://t.co/wlwg7DIBqy
— Sean C. (@MikesLargestSon) October 12, 2022
That is filthy. Literally making world-class major league batters look like high school JVs
— Joseph Gillmer (@jgillmer) October 12, 2022
The walk off after the 8th k https://t.co/yHfQyV0t8d
— Josh (@josh_henderson5) October 12, 2022
nasty 🔥🔥🔥🔥
— @DemoriziGiomar (@DemoriziGiomar1) October 12, 2022
My ACE. https://t.co/wh1uCHB5RE
— Alicent Ⓥ (@sagelordkenneth) October 12, 2022
The Knurve of this guy 👇 https://t.co/v3fttEO3aw
— Evan Ochlan (@Evyev24) October 11, 2022
Love it https://t.co/0CDKyucYTW
— Jeffrey Out of Context (@YoungGodJeff) October 11, 2022
