Expect Gerrit Cole to Continue Dominance in Matchup With Rangers

If you want to start a rift between New York baseball fans, just ask them who the best pitcher in New York is. Mets supporters will undoubtedly say it is Jacob deGrom, and they are probably right. 

deGrom’s longevity and multiple Cy Young awards in New York are unmatched, but Yankees ace Gerrit Cole is coming for that crown and he’s making quite the case for himself early on in 2021.

In just his second season in the city that never sleeps, Cole has already put up historic numbers by striking out 78 batters and walking just three (no, seriously, just three) in his first eight starts. He’s the only pitcher in major league history to ever register such mind-boggling numbers.

Cole has been lights out and he gets a chance to continue his red-hot start against the lowly Texas Rangers on Monday. Texas has won just three of it’s last 10 games and has fallen into last place in the AL West. 

The Yankees’ ace has some intriguing player prop predictions for Monday’s start with his projected strikeouts set at 9.5 on WynnBET. The over (-115) and under (-116) are essentially the same, but we’re liking Cole to hit the over for several reasons. 

This season, Cole has struck out 10 or more batters in five of his eight starts and the only times he didn’t register double-digit strikeouts came against the Houston Astros (7.05 K’s per game, best in MLB) and twice against the Toronto Blue Jays (8.41 K’s per game, seventh in MLB).

Texas strikes out 9.74 times per game this season which is 24th in Major League Baseball and Cole is coming off arguably his best outing of the year where he struck out 12 and allowed just four hits in a win over the Tampa Bay Rays.

Another player prop that I like for Cole on Monday is in the walks department where WynnBET has him projected 1.5 free passes with the under (-160) being heavily favored to the over (+120). Cole hasn’t walked a batter since April 12 and he has walked one or less batters in seven consecutive starts. 

Texas doesn’t walk much as a team either as the Rangers draw just 2.98 free passes a game which is good for 23rd in baseball. That number drops even more at home where the Rangers have averaged just 2.05 walks per game. Cole has gone 34.1 innings without a walk, and we don’t expect that to change against a lineup that doesn’t have an imposing bat he would need to work around. 

We’re backing Cole to have another big day on Monday and with deGrom on the injured list, he’s going to close the gap even more in the race for New York’s ace.