Gerrit Cole is paid quite handsomely to halt poor stretches.
As the high-priced ace, it’s part of his job description.
But instead of putting out the fire that is the Yankees’ ongoing struggles, he tossed kerosene onto it.
The reigning AL Cy Young award winner was blasted by the Mets for the second time this year, as the Yankees were swept out of The Bronx by their crosstown rivals, 12-3, Wednesday night.
With the rout, the Mets completed their second Subway Series sweep ever, the first coming in 2013.
Cole’s six-run dud came at a bad time, with the fading Yankees stuck in neutral and headed out now on a six-game road trip against the Red Sox and best-in-baseball Phillies.
After consecutive, strong six-inning performances, Cole appeared to be back on track after missing the first 2 ¹/₂ months of the season with a right elbow injury.
He retired the first eight hitters he faced in the Subway Series finale, but then everything went wrong.
In the span of 19 hitters, Cole allowed eight hits and three homers.
Mets stars Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso took him deep, but his true foil was last-place hitter Tyrone Taylor.
Taylor, who entered batting .223 with a .647 OPS, broke the ice in the third with a solo homer. He singled in front of a two-run Lindor homer in the fifth and ended Cole’s evening in the sixth with a run-scoring single.
At that point, the ace departed to boos from angry Yankees fans as his ERA rose to an unsightly 5.40 on the season.
His swing-and-miss stuff wasn’t there. Cole registered just six whiffs in 100 pitches, just two coming on 40 four-seam fastballs.
Cole has come up very small in two starts against the Mets. He has given up 12 earned runs across 9 ²/₃ innings — that’s an 11.10 ERA –—along with seven home runs.
For his career, he has struggled against the Mets, pitching to a 7.03 ERA in nine starts, giving up an astronomical 14 homers in 46 ¹/₃ innings.