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Josh Bell and Gerrit Cole Get the Pirates Started on a Winning Note in the Second Half

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PITTSBURGH — Friday against the St. Louis Cardinals, Gerrit Cole got squeezed.

Home plate umpire Jerry Layne had a tight zone all night, but especially in the early going, it seemed to be more prominent against Cole than St. Louis Cardinals starter Mike Leake.

Cole gave up a two-run first-inning home run to Jedd Gyorko after he had already thrown Gyorko at least three strikes, but the third was called a ball.

The Pirates and Cole were able to overcome the adversity. Cole settled down to throw six innings after a 30-pitch first and just allowed the two runs. Josh Bell and Gregory Polanco drove in runs to tie the game and then Bell untied it with a dramatic, three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning as the Pirates walked off with a 5-2 victory to start the second half.

Cole didn’t want to point the finger at Layne, but was clearly upset about the non-call that cost him the two runs and what might have been a longer, more efficient outing.

“They just had some stuff go their way and it’s the Cardinals — it’s kind of what they do,” Cole said. “There were just some things that didn’t go our way in the first inning. You have to deal with it and move on.”

Here’s the balls and called strikes for Cole’s outing. As you can see, Cole threw nine pitches that were either in the strike zone or on the black that were called balls. Both of the pitches at the bottom right of the zone were sliders that were taken by Gyorko.

At the same time Cole wasn’t getting many calls, he also wasn’t getting many swing and misses outside the zone, either. In fact, he wasn’t getting many swing and misses at all. Cole had just five all night and just one was outside the strike zone. I asked Cole why he thought that figure was down.

“I think they’re a tough team to strike out, for sure,” he said. “If I recall correctly the last game (against them), we did have a good handful of punch outs. It may have been an adjustment maybe on their part. It may have been just a lack of those type of pitches — those really good pitches outside the zone in those situations. Overall, we were able to make good pitches when we needed to.”

Then, I asked Cole if he thought the two things might be related. After all, a player that knows a borderline pitch is unlikely to be called a strike is less likely to swing at pitches that are outside the zone. Cole was again hesitant to criticize, but agreed with that premise.

Friday isn’t the first time that’s happened to Cole this season, either. The same thing happened in his last start before the break against Philly. The previous start was better, but he still had four pitches on the black or in the zone go for balls.

“I don’t know if it had an effect in this game, but I could definitely see something like that having an effect, yes,” he said.

Cole had plenty of opportunities for strikeouts, as well. He threw nine pitches with 0-2 counts, had 10 at 1-2, 22 at 2-2 and nine more at 3-2, for a total of 50 pitches thrown with two strikes. He got just four strikeouts.

Cole mentioned that the Cardinals are a hard team to strike out, but their 717 team strikeouts are middle of the road in the National League. It’s been a problem all year, as well.

On the season, Cole is getting swinging strikes just 8.8 percent of the time, down from his career average of 9.4 percent and well below his high of 10.2 percent in the 2015 season. His strikeout rate has seen a similar dip, down to 20.6 percent from 24.3 in 2015 and a career average of 22.3.

The biggest change seems to have come when he’s using his curveball. In his career, that pitch has a whiff rate of 14.42 percent. This season, that’s been more than halved to seven percent. Cole isn’t throwing his curve any less, so it doesn’t seem that he’s lost confidence in it. But for some reason, it has stopped fooling hitters.

BELL BRINGS THEM HOME

Bell’s home run provided the Pirates an important victory. It also showed that he’s continuing his development as a hitter in the majors. Bell fell behind in the count, 1-2. After the second pitch, a called strike, he had a chat with Layne, just to be sure about the pitch.

“I just wanted to know if that was black or he had a little bit more,” Bell said. “He said he had a little bit more. I was just protecting from then on.”

The next pitch was a fastball just outside the outside part of the zone. Bell took it the other way to the bleachers.

“He did a lot of good things at the plate,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “We’ve talked about him being dangerous. We’ve talked about him learning at the plate as the season goes on, taking his at bats. … He hit that, as soon as he hit it he knew it was out. Fun to watch him grow. He’s growing up right in front of our eyes.”

Bell’s four RBIs Friday gives him 18 RBIs over his last 18 games.

FRAZIER SETS THE TABLE

Adam Frazier went 3 for 5 with his first multi-hit game since June 21. He got hits in all three innings that he led off, including the first and the ninth, when he doubled to left to start the rally that ended with Bell’s homer.

“It’s a welcome sight,” Hurdle said. “Nobody’s been more challenged than him. He’s the one living it. It’s his first multi-hit game since sometime in the middle of June. That’s a long time. That’s a guy that for a couple of weeks looked like he invented the game. That’s the beauty of being up here for a full season. It takes you a lot of places. He’s learning a lot of valuable lessons through the challenging times.”

Frazier said it was particularly satisfying to get rallies started. The Pirates scored following his hit in the fifth, as well.

“It feels good,” he said. “That’s my role. It felt good to be able to contribute like that.”

Frazier credited some time away from baseball during the break and a mechanical adjustment with his success.

“I’m just trying to get my top hand down the ball. I think I was trying to lift a little bit. The bat path wasn’t usually where it is or where it should be. Hopefully, we’re on to something and we can build off that.”

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