Cole hurt, surging Blue Jays power past skidding Yanks 5-1

NEW YORK (AP) — Marcus Semien homered again, Alejandro Kirk went deep twice and the surging Toronto Blue Jays beat the skidding Yankees 5-1 on Tuesday night after New York ace Gerrit Cole exited early with a hamstring injury.

Cole (14-7) was pulled in the fourth inning with left hamstring tightness after allowing a sacrifice fly to Reese McGuire that gave the Blue Jays a 3-1 lead. After the throw from center fielder Aaron Judge deflected off his glove, Cole motioned to the dugout and was checked out by trainer Tim Lentych.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Cole was not headed for an MRI and the right-hander said it was too early to determine if he would miss his next scheduled start.

“I want to make sure that I am good if I’m good or if I need a few extra days, but I was sitting out there for a couple of pitches weighing the pros and cons and I just wasn’t quite sure I was going to be able to get through the inning and get some treatment on it to get back out,” Cole said. “So unfortunately, I just had to pull the plug.”

Cole allowed three runs, two earned, and five hits in 3 2/3 innings. After striking out 15 on Wednesday against the Angels, he threw 70 pitches as Toronto put together several long at-bats against the star right-hander.

“He didn’t look different to me,” Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said. “You've got to give our hitters credit because we were having good at-bats against one of the best pitchers in baseball."

Semien extended his career high with his 38th homer and seventh against the Yankees this year when he connected off Albert Abreu to open the fifth for a 4-1 lead. It was the sixth homer in six games for Semien, whose previous career best was 33 for Oakland in 2019.

Kirk went deep in the second off Cole and connected again in the eighth as...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Cole-injured-surging-Blue-Jays-power-past-16441860.php