Pirates' Gerrit Cole: Suffers first poor outing of 2017

Cole gave up five earned runs on 10 hits and two walks in 4.2 innings Monday against the Braves. He also hit one batter while striking out two.

The outing was his worst of 2017 and seemed reminiscent of his struggles from a year ago. A 31-pitch first inning set the tone for the evening and long-time nemesis Brandon Phillips (.440 career batting average vs. Cole) belted a two-run homer to further compound matters. Cole needed 100 pitches (67 for strikes) in the highly forgettable showing. Fortunately, his fastball velocity (95.8 mph) was on par with his last four starts, making Monday look more like an aberration than a trend. He'll next get the Mets in Pittsburgh over the weekend.