A team record of 105-77, a pitching record of 20-5, and an appearance to the world series. I guess you could say all- star pitcher Gerrit Cole has had one hell of a season. Now stats wise, Cole is arguably the best of the best, but stats don't mean anything when your stats don't come through in clutch when they need to. After the Nationals defeated former Cy Young winner Justin Verlander in game 1 and defeating now favorite candidate for this seasons Cy Young in Cole, Astros fan are holding their breath " Houston, we have a problem."
Gerrit Cole has had a monster season. After getting traded to Houston last year from Pittsburgh, Cole has seemed to find himself at home in this Astros pitching staff. A long with all-star pitchers Justin Verlander and Zack Greinke, who was acquired by the Astros just after the all star break. With these three in the same rotation, the Astros have established themselves of having the best pitching rotation in all of baseball.
Adding along to his 20-5 pitching record through 33 appearances, Cole also dominated ERA, Strikeouts, and WHIP. After pitching 212 innings, Cole finished his regular season leading the league in strikeouts (326) and ERA (2.50). He also finished 2nd behind teammate Justin Verlander in WHIP (0.89). After acquiring Greinke and Verlander and Cole dominating the mound like they did all season, the Houston Astros were favored to win the World Series. Going along with Cole's dominating season, he also added to his resume of joining hall of fame pitcher Randy "the big unit" Johnson as the 2nd fastest pitcher to reach 200 strikeouts in a season in 150 innings or less. With the Astros taking out the Yankees 4-2 out of a 7 game series and Cole dominating his performance ( 7 IP, 7 K's, 0 ER, 4 Hits allowed), Cole now had to face a dominating and on a tear Washington Nationals lineup.
In Game 1 of the World Series, Cole had a tough pitching matchup against Washington's Ace Max Scherzer. With the game going back and forth through 7 innings, it was Scherzer who got the better of the matchup. After 5 innings of work, Scherzer ( 5 Hits, 2 Earned Runs, 3 Walks, 7 Strikeouts) was in line for the win after Cole went 7 innings ( 8 Hits, 5 Earned Runs, 1 Walk, 6 Strikeouts) and was in line to fall with the Astros to lose a gain after all of the Game 1 hype. The results would match the picture perfectly as the Nationals took the win 5-4.
Now after this game 1 loss and probably the worst pitching performance of Cole's Cy Young season, I truly believe Cole is just out of gas and his workload is pretty close to reaching the max for the year. After pitching 33 games, going 7-8 innings every outing and finishing each game around 116 pitches per game, I would say his arm has just reached its limit. Cole has been considered the ace or the #2 behind other Cy Young candidate Justin Verlander. After his outstanding and Cole finding himself as a free agent this upcoming offseason, Cole could find himself a new home signing a huge contract worth the max $150 million or could take a paycut to stay with this stacked Houston Astros pitching rotation. His decision will probably be based off how this world series ends up.