ATLANTA — It took one inning to stop the momentum Gerrit Cole had built over five weeks.
The Pirates' right-hander needed 31 pitches to escape the first inning Monday night at the Braves' SunTrust Park and, although it was one of only three scoreless innings he pitched during the 5-2 loss, it was the first sign of trouble in what would become his shortest start of the season at 4 1/3 innings. He would allow five runs on 10 hits, including two home runs.
But the result did not raise any red flags for Clint Hurdle.
"I thought he did the best he could with what he had, with where he was," Hurdle said. "For interpretation, I thought he pitched better than the line. Much better than the line."
On paper, it was Cole's first hiccup since he allowed five earned runs in the season-opening loss at Boston on April 3. It snapped his streak of seven consecutive starts throwing at least six innings while allowing two or fewer runs, good for a 1.96 ERA during that span.
The Braves, winners of eight of their past 11, gave Cole trouble immediately. It took him 21 pitches to get through the first two batters, including 11 to leadoff man Ender Inciarte. Inciarte fouled off eight pitches before lacing a single to right, and Brandon Phillips grounded out on the 10th pitch of an at-bat where he was behind 0-2 before working the count full.
Cole got the second out, but it took him six more pitches to strike out Matt Kemp to end the first inning.
"I don’t know if it took anything out [of me], but it was definitely a fascinating inning for sure," Cole said. "I don’t remember having an inning like that in my life. ... It’s just one of those, I don’t know, I’ve never experienced one of those innings before. Good pitches, bad pitches, foul balls, close pitches. One of those innings."
Yet, Cole seemed to move forward unscathed. He needed just eight pitches to get through the second,. A quick second came as a relief to Cole, but what puzzled him was how his approach and pitch quality were the same as the first:
