NEW YORK -- Gerrit Cole spent hours of his childhood staring at the poster taped to the walls of a bedroom some 3,000 miles from The Bronx, a frozen image of Derek Jeter proudly draped in the Yankees' pinstriped white home uniform. The aspiring right-hander imagined being under the bright lights on that same stage, accepting the assignment of pitching his favorite team to victory. Eight months after swirling his signature on a record-setting $324 million deal, Cole's dream finally became reality on Monday evening. Cole extended his career-long winning streak (in decisions for him) to 19 games, firing six strong innings as the Yankees defeated the Phillies, 6-3, for their seventh consecutive win and their eighth in nine games this season. “To be honest Joe DiMaggio Jersey, I imagined getting a win in the home debut, so I guess we got that one done,” Cole said. “The new uniform is great, the mound is top-notch here. We obviously played a crisp ballgame, so it was a good day.” Cole's first two starts of the season came on the road against the Nationals and Orioles, and though he generated just one swing-and-miss out of 46 fastballs, Cole had enough gas to keep Philadelphia's lineup in check. Jay Bruce's third-inning homer accounted for the damage against Cole, who scattered five hits and walked one in a 91-pitch effort, striking out four. “I thought the Phillies really hunted the fastball on him and had a pretty good plan,” manager Aaron Boone said. “They were able to put together some decent at-bats, but then you look up and it's 90-ish pitches, just the home run and one run. So just another really strong outing by our ace.” Dating to May 22 of last season, when he was a member of the Astros, Cole has gone 19-0 with a 1.86 ERA in 25 regular-season starts. That is the sixth-longest streak in Major League history, placing Cole one win shy of equaling feats achieved by Jake Arrieta (2015-16), Roger Clemens (1998-99) and Rube Marquard (1911-12). The only downside to Cole's night was that his parents couldn't attend his home debut in person, though they watched on television from the West Coast. “They sent us some pictures as they were watching the game,” Cole said. “My folks are a little bummed that they couldn't be here, to be honest. As soon as they can be here, we're going to get them out because they're very excited.” Coincidentally Jorge Posada Jersey, Arrieta was on the mound for the Phils on Monday, greeted by DJ LeMahieu's second leadoff home run of the season. Even as Aaron Judge's career-high five-game home run streak ended, the Yankees have homered in each of their first nine games for the third time in franchise history, equaling their tally from 2001 and one shy of a mark established in 1999. “I'm excited with the start and the fact that I feel like we're playing good baseball,” Boone said. “Even though it is a shorter season, it's a long ways to go, but I'm happy with where we are.” Long-distance laughter Brett Gardner answered Bruce's homer with an opposite-field blast in the bottom of the third, marking the first time in Gardner's career that he has homered over the left-field wall at Yankee Stadium. The surprising event led Gardner to be razzed not only when he returned to the bench, but also by a former teammate across the country. When play paused for one hour and nine minutes in the seventh inning due to rain, Gardner discovered a printout of a tweet sent by former big leaguer Phil Hughes, who commented: “Gardy is my boy, but if he's going oppo the league has a baseball problem." “I don't have social media Lou Gehrig Jersey, so a lot of things go unnoticed by me, but somebody made me aware of Phil tweeting about me hitting oppo homers,” Gardner said. “I texted him and gave him a hard time; he's at the house [in California] watching on TV. He was asking me how it is playing in front of no fans, and a few other things. He's one of my guys going all the way back to 2005 and 2006, so it's all in good fun.” Asked if he knew who put the printout on his chair, Gardner replied, “I've got some ideas. We'll do a little more analysis, maybe get some [finger]prints and confirm it. We've got quite a bit of baseball ahead of us and I've got a few pranks up my sleeve, so we'll have some fun with it.” Oh gee, Gio Gio Urshela continued to swing a hot bat, mashing the Yanks' third homer of the evening off Deolis Guerra in the sixth. Urshela contributed a pair of deft defensive plays behind Cole early in the game and has reached base safely in each of New York's nine games thus far Luke Voit Jersey. “I feel so proud of myself right now,” Urshela said. “I know that it's been a long wait. I've been working hard for this moment, and I thank God I'm here with the Yankees living those moments.” Though Tuesday's game has been postponed due to an inclement forecast, with Hurricane Isaias having made landfall Monday night in North Carolina, Urshela wouldn't have minded playing another game in The Bronx. He batted 7-for-15 with a double, three homers and nine RBIs during the four-game homestand against the Red Sox and Phillies. “He's been such an important player for us,” Boone said. “He's been so steady; a true two-way player now with big at-bats in big spots. I'm just really glad he's on our side.” As if there weren't already enough reasons to watch Gerrit Cole's starts for the Yankees this year, here's one more: He's chasing an 83-year-old record, and he extended his streak on Friday night against the Red Sox. Cole won each of his first three decisions in pinstripes -- before receiving no-decision, then getting back to his winning ways against the Red Sox. His personal win streak is now at 20-0 in his last 20 decisions dating back to May 27, 2019. That leaves him only four consecutive wins shy of tying Hall of Famer Carl Hubbell's all-time record for the longest pitcher win streak in history in games in which he was the pitcher of record (meaning he was on the hook for either a personal win or loss). Cole's first four wins of 2020 have already put him into a tie for third place on the all-time list. Here are the top-10 pitcher win streaks on record since 1901, listed in descending order. (Note: These streaks do not include postseason appearances, which means that Cole's loss to the Nats in Game 1 of last year's World Series does not preclude him from tying Hubbell's record.) 1) Carl Hubbell -- 24 straight wins Streak: July 17, 1936 - May 27, 1937 Hubbell famously struck out five straight Hall of Famers in the 1934 All-Star Game and also hurled an 18-inning shutout in ‘33, so this streak is just one of several bolded points on his Cooperstown resume. It began with a shutout of the Pirates that put Hubbell's Giants just two games over .500, but 15 more consecutive wins (including 13 more complete games) by Hubbell boosted New York to the National League pennant and earned Hubbell his second NL MVP award. The Yankees finally hung a loss on Hubbell in Game 4 of the World Series Mariano Rivera Jersey, but the screwballer's regular-season streak stayed intact through the first two months of the 1937 campaign, helping him solidify his famous “Meal Ticket” moniker. A near-record crowd of 61,756 (and another 25,000 fans turned away at the gates) came to the Polo Grounds on May 30 to see Hubbell go for No. 25, but the Dodgers spoiled the party with five early runs. All told, Hubbell's streak included 21 wins as a starter and three more out of the bullpen (he also picked up two saves along the way). 2) Roy Face -- 22 straight wins Streak: June 7, 1958 - Aug. 30, 1959 Face's 1959 campaign is one of the all-time seasons put up by any reliever: His 18-1 record that year still represents the most victories ever recorded by a pitcher with one or fewer losses. Face called himself lucky to come out of the Pirates' bullpen so many times without a loss, but his skill played a huge role, too. The 5-foot-8, 155-pound forkballer often pitched multiple innings without any negative effect, and his dominance peaked by mid-July 1959, when his season record stood at 13-0 with a 1.10 ERA. Face would go on to save three of the Pirates' four wins in Pittsburgh's upset of the Yankees in the ‘60 World Series. 3-T) Gerrit Cole -- 20 straight wins Streak: May 27, 2019 - present Cole jumped several levels in dominance after the Astros acquired him from the Pirates via trade before the 2018 season, and there wasn't a hotter pitcher in baseball down the '19 stretch run. He finished the season with a combined 373 strikeouts across the regular and postseason, the fifth-highest single-year total in history. That performance netted Cole a record-setting nine-year, $324 million contract with the Yankees following the '19 World Series, instantly catapulting him to ace status on baseball's most famous team. 3-T) Jake Arrieta -- 20 straight wins Streak: Aug. 4, 2015 -- May 25, 2016 Arrieta's run is probably the most statistically dominant on this list. To start, it included not one, but two no-hitters -- the first on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball at Dodger Stadium, and the second less than eight months later in Cincinnati. It also encompassed the majority of the greatest second half recorded by any pitcher, by ERA (0.75), in history. Overall, Arrieta allowed just 14 earned runs across the 20 games he won.
