Gerrit Cole hammered by Mets again as ace can’t halt Yankees’ struggles

Gerrit Cole is paid quite handsomely to halt poor stretches.

As the high-priced ace, it’s part of his job description.

But instead of putting out the fire that is the Yankees’ ongoing struggles, he tossed kerosene onto it.

The reigning Cy Young award winner was blasted by the Mets for the second time this year, as the Yankees were swept out of The Bronx by their crosstown rivals, 12-3, Wednesday night.

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“I’m frustrated — frustrated sitting in the emotions of this loss,” Cole said. “But our job is to flush it and not let the play of the last six weeks affect the way we prepare for the next game.”

Cole’s six-run, three-homer dud came at a particularly bad time, with the fading Yankees stuck in neutral and headed out now on a six-game road trip against the Red Sox and best-in-baseball Phillies.

After consecutive strong six-inning performances, Cole appeared to be back on track after missing the first 2 ¹/₂ months of the season with a right elbow injury.

He retired the first eight hitters he faced in the Subway Series finale, but then everything went wrong.

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In the span of 19 hitters, Cole allowed eight hits and three homers.

Mets stars Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso took him deep on misplaced cut fastballs, but his true nemesis was last-place hitter Tyrone Taylor.

Taylor, who entered the evening batting .223 with a .647 OPS, broke the ice in the third with a solo homer.

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He singled in front of a two-run Lindor homer in the fifth and ended Cole’s evening in the sixth with a run-scoring single.

“Yeah, not very good,” Cole said. “Taylor had a good night, so there’s some credit to be given there. I think he got three hits, and I don’t think any of the pitches were anywhere near the middle of the zone.”

At that point, the righty departed to boos from angry Yankees fans as his ERA rose to an unsightly 5.40 on the season. His swing-and-miss stuff wasn’t there.

Cole registered just six whiffs in 100 pitches, just two coming on 40 four-seam fastballs. But he felt this outing had as much to do with a good offensive team having a solid night than him being off.

“I wouldn’t say a lot of the pitches were in the heart of the plate, to be honest,” Cole said. “Certainly I’m not without fault, but Taylor took three pitches on the edge or outside of the strike zone for hits tonight, Lindor had two hits on pitches on the edge, but it’s the two cutters.”

Cole has come up very small in two starts against the Mets. He has given up 12 earned runs across 9 ²/₃ innings — that’s an 11.10 ERA — along with seven long balls in two games against the Mets this year. For his career, he has struggled against the Mets, pitching to a 7.03 ERA in nine starts, giving up an astronomical 14 homers in 46 ¹/₃ innings.

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