Gerrit Cole dominant in Pirates' 4-1 win over Mets

Gerrit Cole pitched 8.1 innings and struck out 10 as the Pirates soundly beat the Mets Friday night, 4-1.

Cole was brilliant, walking just one batter and allowing no extra-base hits while throwing 99 MPH even in the ninth inning. Only a single and a walk that inning prevented him from a complete game. His only blemish came in the third, an inning that began with an error with Josh Harrison and resulted in an unearned run for Cole when he threw a wild pitch. (Mark Melancon recorded the last two outs for the save.) Cole's performance lowered his ERA for the season to 2.05.

Meanwhile, the Pirates' offense did more than enough to help Cole to victory. In the second, Pedro Alvarez hit a two-out, ground-rule double, then came home as Gregory Polanco hit a ground-ball single that Mets first baseman Lucas Duda deflected. Polanco then stole second and came home when Chris Stewart (who also threw out two baserunners tonight) grounded a double down the line. In the sixth, Andrew McCutchen hit Noah Syndergaard's 95-MPH fastball for a line-drive double, then moved up on a groundout and came home as Jung-Ho Kang dribbled a single up the middle. Kang then moved to second on an error and to third on a steal, then came home on Alvarez's sacrifice fly.

Erik Goeddel hit McCutchen in the back with an offspeed pitch in the eighth, and McCutchen remained on the ground for a minute after that, but he smiled as he got up, took his base and remained in the game.