Put any spin you want on it: Cole and Chapman come through for Yankees

That might be the message Gerrit Cole was sending anybody who was keeping an eye on his outing – and his underlying numbers – Wednesday night in Sahlen Field.

Cole pitched eight strong innings and got a victory as Gary Sanchez soared a two-run pinch homer to Oak Street in the seventh. The blast gave the New York Yankees a 3-2 win over the Toronto Blue Jays before another heavily pro-Yankee crowd of 7,271.

Cole has become the face of MLB's ball-doctoring crisis this month after comments from Minnesota's Josh Donaldson. And MLB announced Tuesday that it's cracking down on pitchers starting on Monday. Cole seems to be among the pitchers who are quickly adjusting to the situation.

And no matter what the explanation might be, there's no question his spin rate is slowing down in recent outings.

According to MLB.com, Cole’s fastballs Wednesday averaged a spin rate of 2,347 rpm, down 202 rpm from his season average. His slider spin rate also fell to 2,503 rpm, down 198. Hmmm.

Whether Cole is adapting to some new reality or not, he battled all night to improve to 8-3. And although his fastball velocity averaged 97.8 mph, he was defiant about the spin numbers.

"Spin rate is not everything," Cole said. "You can still pitch well if you don't have a high spin rate."

"I thought he used all his pitches really well," manager Aaron Boone said. "The changeup was there for him again, both breaking balls and the fastball. He didn't climb the ladder as much with two strikes, and they did a good job in two-strike scenarios."

Cole didn't look comfortable with the ball on the mound at times and wasn't all that fond of plate umpire C.B. Bucknor's strike zone at several points in the early going, either, but he battled through 104 pitches, throwing 70 strikes. He struck out four and walked one, giving up a leadoff solo homer to Marcus Semien in the first and a one-out shot to Cavan Biggio in the fifth.

The issue, however, continues to center around grip. Cole said the ball was tough to secure and that was especially true in the early innings when a cool wind off Lake Erie was blowing through the ballpark.

Oddly enough, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred was in town Wednesday to get a tour of the renovation work the Blue Jays have done in Sahlen Field. He was not made available to the media and Cole said because he was pitching, he did not talk to Manfred when the Commish visited the Yankees' clubhouse before the game.

But Cole had quite a message for Manfred about the whole situation. He's very concerned about injuries, especially after talking to Tampa Bay's Tyler Glasnow earlier in the week. Glasnow suffered what could be a serious elbow injury that he attributed to being forced into a tighter grip on the ball without using any substances on it.

"I would encourage the Commissioner's office to continue to talk with us," Cole said. "We're the ones who throw the ball, they don't. We're the experts in this situation. ...  It's so hard to grip the ball. For Pete's sake, it's part of the reason why almost every player has something on the field to help them control the ball. 

"I don't have a solution but we are aligned in a lot of areas with the Commissioner's office on this. Please just talk with us. Please just work with us. I know you have the hammer here. But we've been living in a gray area for so long, I would hate to see players get hurt, I would hate to see balls flying at people's heads."

Cole left after the eighth and was spellbound in the dugout watching the ninth like everyone else in the park.

That's because the win wasn't secured until Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman pulled a high-wire act that would have made daredevil Nik Wallenda proud while going across Niagara Falls.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. led off the Toronto ninth with a single off Chapman and scooted to third on Teoscar Hernandez's double to right. With men at second and third and no outs, the Blue Jays figured to at least get home the tying run and force extra innings, but Chapman was undaunted.

With pitches cracking the stadium radar gun as high as 101 mph, Chapman struck out Randal Grichuk and then helped erase Guerrero at third as he fired Santiago Espinal's full-count comebacker home to stop Guerrero in his tracks and Sanchez threw to Gio Urshela at third to nail Guerrero diving back into the bag.

Chapman and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. then battled to a 2-2 count before Gurriel lined to Brett Gardner in center for the final out. 

"What 'Chappy' had going was his stuff was good, he was throwing strikes and getting himself into good counts," Boone said. "He kept making pitches and was a little unpredictable."

The Yankees have won the first two games of the series to improve to 35-32. The Blue Jays have lost three straight and are 33-33, including 3-4 in their first seven games this year in Buffalo.

How nervous was Boone getting during the ninth?

"I got a pacemaker, so that keeps it nice and steady," cracked Boone, who missed time in spring training to have it implanted.

Toronto starter Ross Stripling allowed just one hit in the first six innings, a first-inning single to Aaron Judge. But he hung a 3-1 pitch to Sanchez in the seventh and the Yankees catcher, who didn't start because Kyle Higoshioka normally catches Cole, drove the ball 446 feet over the screen on to Oak Street.

"He's been a great teammate," Boone said of Sanchez. "He's worked really hard on both sides of the ball. He's just worked. He's had the courage to make adjustments and he's getting some of the rewards now."

Look out on Oak Street. https://t.co/IDolSNKAn6

— Mike Harrington (@ByMHarrington) June 17, 2021