page_title: Gerrit Cole
section_title: Houston Astros
hierarchical_section_title: Gerrit Cole / Professional career / Houston Astros
caption_attribution_description: English: Astros vs Angels
context_page_description: Gerrit Alan Cole is an American professional baseball pitcher for the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball. Nicknamed "Cole Train", he previously played for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Houston Astros. Cole played for the baseball team at Orange Lutheran High School, and was selected by the Yankees in the first round of the 2008 MLB Draft. Cole opted not to sign, and instead attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where he played college baseball for the UCLA Bruins.
  After his college baseball career, the Pirates made Cole the first overall selection in the 2011 MLB draft. Cole made his MLB debut in 2013, and was named the National League Rookie of the Month in September 2013. He was named the NL Pitcher of the Month for April 2015, and an MLB All-Star in 2015. The Pirates traded Cole to the Astros in the 2017–18 offseason. On September 18, 2019, Cole became the 18th pitcher in major league history to strike out at least 300 batters in a season. On December 16, 2019, Cole signed a $324 million contract with the Yankees, the largest contract in major league history for a pitcher.
context_section_description: On January 13, 2018, the Pirates traded Cole to the Houston Astros for Joe Musgrove, Michael Feliz, Colin Moran and Jason Martin.
  On April 29, 2018, Cole struck out 12 hitters in a game against the Oakland Athletics that resulted in a no-decision but an Astros win. In doing so, Cole broke the Astros strikeout record for April with 61 strikeouts in the first month. He finished his first month in an Astros uniform going 2–1 with 61 strikeouts and a 1.73 ERA in 41.2 innings pitched. On May 4, against the Arizona Diamondbacks Cole struck out 16, allowed only one hit, and pitched his first career shutout as the Astros won 8–0.
  Cole was elected to his first American League All-Star appearance (2nd overall). Cole did not appear in the game but finished the first half of the season with a 10–2 record with a 2.52 ERA and 177 strikeouts. He finished the season with 278 strikeouts, a new career high and good for second most in the American League behind teammate Justin Verlander, a 15–5 record, and a 2.88 ERA, his best since the 2015 season. He led the majors in strikeouts per 9 innings (12.40). In Game 2 of the 2018 American League Division Series against the Cleveland Indians, Cole struck out 12 and walked none in seven innings in a 3–1 victory. Cole became the second pitcher to strikeout at least 12 hitters with no walks in the postseason, after Tom Seaver in the 1973 National League Championship Series.
  On September 8, 2019, his 29th birthday, Cole became the second pitcher ever to strike out 14 or more hitters in three consecutive games. On September 18, 2019, Cole struck out his 300th batter of the season, becoming the third Astros pitcher to strike out 300 batters in a single season, after J. R. Richard and Mike Scott. Cole became the second-fastest pitcher to register 300 strikeouts in terms of innings pitched. His ​198 ¹⁄₃ innings trails only Randy Johnson, who achieved the feat in ​197 ²⁄₃ innings in 2001. The following start, September 24, 2019, Cole struck out 14 batters to break the single-season strikeout record for any Astros pitcher, bringing his total to 316 on the year, and allowing only two singles in his appearance of seven scoreless innings. In his next start on September 29, 2019, Cole set an MLB record with his ninth consecutive outings with at least 10 strikeouts.
  Cole's performance since February 2018 and through the 2019 season was markedly different from his earlier seasons, due to intervention by the Astros management and coaching staff. Cole vastly reduced the number of two-seam fastballs he threw, threw more into the top of the strike zone, and increased the spin rate of his fastball.
  Cole finished the 2019 season with a 20–5 record and a 0.895 WHIP. He led the American League with a 2.50 ERA, and led the major leagues in strikeouts (326), strikeout percentage (39.9%), and strikeouts per nine innings (13.818). He became the first full-time starting pitcher in MLB history to average more than one and a half strikeouts per inning in a season. He finished second in voting for the 2019 Cy Young Award, behind Verlander with 159 points to Verlander's 171.
caption: Cole pitching for the Houston Astros in 2018
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