For the second straight game, the sinkerballer misfired pitches at critical junctures that came back to haunt him. During Friday's 10-3 loss, Cook lamented his 91 mph sinker to Yankees slugger Raul Ibanez in the first inning.
That pitch wound up resulting in a two-run homer that would foreshadow a troublesome outing for Cook. Before that at bat, Cook had held the Yankees' starting lineup homerless in 61 straight at bats.
"I missed by three-and-a-half feet," Cook said of the at-bat against Ibanez. "I was trying to come in. I had a pitching coach tell me, if you're going to miss, miss by two feet. And I missed by more than three. I was trying to come in, opened up too early, left it up and away, and he still hit it. It’s still a pitch that probably shouldn't have been hit, so that's why you tip your hat."
With the exception of his first start — where he suffered a cut to his leg — it signaled the worst outing of Cook's short stint with the Red Sox. He lasted just four innings and surrendered seven hits and six runs while only striking out one batter.
But Ibanez's homer wasn't the lone error. In the fourth inning, Yankees catcher Russell Martin pounced on Cook's sinker and crushed it into left field for another two-run home run that gave Boston a comfortable cushion.
"The one to Martin, it just came back to the middle of the plate a little bit," Cook said. "I faced him a lot with the Dodgers. He was kind of cheating a little bit trying to get the ball in the air, and he got one that was a little bit up and in the middle and drove it really far."
In two career starts against the Yankees, Cook is 0-2 with a 10.24 ERA.
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