Kovacevic: Get a grip on the Gerrit gripes

MILWAUKEE -- Maybe this is just who Gerrit Cole is.

And no, unlike the bulk of Pittsburgh's baseball fandom, I don't offer that perspective as some sort of pejorative.

Here's the summation of his 2017 season in a single Tuesday night at Miller Park: He fanned 10 batters, fired 69 of his 96 pitches for strikes, mowed down the heart of the Brewers' order like they were A-ballers ... and was tagged for a home run, five runs, six hits, a couple walks ... and the Pirates lost, 5-2.

If I've typed something like that once this summer, I've typed it a dozen times.

And if I've read on the Internet or heard on the radio once that Cole's not an ace, I've read or heard it a billion times and beyond.



To which I'll respond, at least in my head, to each: Who ever anointed the guy an ace in the first place?

No, really, we're talking about a pitcher who was drafted first overall in 2011. And if I thought the genesis of this sentiment was primarily that he was a stud coming out of UCLA, I'd accept it without a second thought. But we're talking about Major League Baseball's draft here, not the NFL or NHL, and we're talking about Pittsburgh, where the only people paying attention to who's taken work at 115 Federal, and even they can't stay awake through it, judging by their decade of failed results.

Don't tell me it's about the draft. And don't tell me it's that someone somewhere hyped him up. Because I was covering Cole from his professional cradle and onward, and no one built him up -- inside or outside the city -- like he was the next Stephen Strasburg. Or anything close to that.

I'll tell you what happened, and I'll tell you why it's unfair: The Pirates' fans continue to experience a collective civic agony over the wild card losses and, yeah, Game 5 in St. Louis. And because the team went into those games, especially the one-and-dones, knowing that Cole wasn't a match for Madison Bumgarner or Jake Arrieta or anyone else the opponent might send out, they've resented Cole for that.

Never mind that he hadn't even turned 25. Never mind that Bumgarner had a playoff unlike any pitcher had in a half-century. Never mind that Arrieta ... eh, never mind.

Their guy was better than our guy, and therefore our guy stinks.

Well, that sentiment stinks.

Why can't Cole just be the very best version of Cole?

There's plenty of room for criticism in that context alone, and that's where it should stay. For the season, he's got a 4.04 ERA, more than half a run higher than his career 3.40. That's not the best version of Cole. He's given up 28 home runs, and he'd never before given up more than 11. That's not the best version of anyone. Again, that's bona fide material there.

That said, he leads this staff -- maybe not as however anyone defines an ace -- but in innings with 187, in strikeouts with 178, in WHIP at 1.25 and in opponents' OBP at .302. Those are real, too.

So is how he's pushed through this two-month bout with the occasional bad pitch, bad luck or both. I've witnessed it on and off the field, and he's only become visibly sturdier than ever.

In the fifth inning on this night, the Brewers had runners at second and third with one out and their Nos. 3 and 4 hitters up. Already down, 5-2, the wheels could have come flying off all the way to Green Bay.

Instead, Ryan Braun lunged at 99-mph heat down and away ...



... and Travis Shaw turned popsicle on a changeup:



I know, I know, there were those five runs, which will be addressed here momentarily. And this wasn't good enough. And for crying out loud, he isn't an ace.

Still, it takes talent and toughness to do that. I asked about the sequence:

PIRATES