Gerrit Cole got his spring debut tonight, and Michael King made his awaited return, but the Yankees fell 5-3 to the Tigers in this Friday night matchup.
To be blunt, even the full-strength Tigers are at best a very pedestrian lineup, and in tonight’s case, Cole went up against their B team. The bulk of Detroit’s primary hitters played in the afternoon against the Phillies with this being a split-squad day for AJ Hinch’s team.
With it being his first game action, Cole took this opportunity to work on his fastball command, using the heater a whopping 69 percent of the time.