Gerrit Cole is, by many people's standards, not likable. I find this way of thinking to be incorrect because I like Gerrit Cole, though in a way that's not always contingent on his continued success. He's a guy with a dad comportment who is very invested in labor and the MLB Players Association. He's one of the best pitchers of his generation. He is often one of the most informative pitchers to listen to talk after a start, especially a poor one. He sounds a bit like Kermit the Frog? His 2021 spider tack era proved so fascinating to me that I got in the graph mines for my own satisfaction.
This is not to say that I don't derive joy from his successful starts, it's just that it is not the only part of what defines a satisfying Cole game. To me, he remains narratively interesting as a hyper-competitive guy who has gone through ups and downs in recent years. It's hard to begrudge anyone their disaffection—he can be a bit of a heel on the field, but he's a well-constructed one who's generally chill off of it, and, most importantly, has a fatal flaw: Rafael Devers.
I usually believe that a pitcher has way more control over the outcome of an at-bat than a batter does, perhaps influenced by the fact that I have a better grasp of how pitching works than hitting. The better the pitcher, the more dramatic the disparity, and a pitcher like Cole is usually in control—unless, say, it's Devers. This doesn't even extend to hitters like Devers. It's just Devers, who has slashed .350/.435/.975 for an OPS of 1.410, with 8 home runs over seven seasons and 46 plate appearances versus Cole. You can be a future Hall-of-Famer—as Devers referred to Cole, which doubled as a slight self-compliment—and still have That One Guy who defies you.
On Saturday, Cole ended his first at-bat against Devers by hitting him with an 0-1 pitch. Alex Cora, also a former Houston Astro, suggested afterward that Cole did so intentionally to avoid facing him. Cora justified this suggestion by pointing to how, during the second at-bat, Cole intentionally walked Devers with no one on base. A baffled Devers looked to the umpire, walked, and then stole second before scoring on a Masataka Yoshida double.
"The intentional walk was loud and clear. 'I don't want to face him.' So the second pitch of the game against [Devers], you see it," Cora said. "It was intentional. I'm not going to back up. It was intentional." Whether or not Cora actually meant it is in dispute. It could just be an additional moment of gamesmanship, though Cora's later implication that the Red Sox tried throwing at Aaron Judge in retaliation, and missed, undercuts the message slightly.
Cole said after the game that the plan had been to walk Devers but, "Clearly, that was a mistake."
What is undeniable is that Cole was sick and tired of Devers. This strikes me as a very measured and self-aware understanding of one's weaknesses. Other than the bases-loaded intentional walk, the bases-empty intentional walk is one of the greatest nods a pitcher can give to a batter. What are you really worried about? A solo home run? There have been six intentional walks so far this year with no runners on base. One of them is Cole's walk against Devers. A pair of them were by the Toronto Blue Jays on back-to-back days, against early-August Aaron Judge. The fourth was by Matt Moore, again against early-August Judge. Perhaps the real lesson here is that Judge is a formidable hitter. (The fifth also was by Matt Moore and against Vladimir Guerrero Jr., though at that point they'd already reached a 3-1 count.)
What was shocking was that Stathead, not yet updated to the day's games, said on Saturday night that there were only four total bases-empty intentional walks. You know what that means: Cole was not the only pitcher to conduct a bases-empty intentional walk on Saturday. And yet all the focus was upon him! How quickly everyone forgets that Los Angeles Angels pitcher Guillo Zuñiga intentionally walked Yordan Álvarez in the top of the ninth inning, after going down 3-0 in the count. I'm hearing that Zuñiga is afraid of Álvarez? Sound the alarms!
The third and final time that Devers came to face Gerrit Cole, it was with the bases loaded. Devers hit a one-out, two-RBI single. Personally speaking, I would not have faulted Cole for choosing the intentional walk.
