Gerrit Cole allows 3 straight home runs to start game as Yankees fall to Padres

What happened

Gerrit Cole surrendered three home runs in the first three batters of the game, MLB.com reported, as the New York Yankees dropped the series finale to the San Diego Padres.

The sequence — three batters, three balls in the seats before a single out was recorded — is the kind of opening that tends to linger in a box score long after the final out. For Cole, the unsettling part is not just that it happened, but that it has now happened twice in his career. Most pitchers go an entire career without surrendering three leadoff home runs in succession once. Cole has now done it in a pair of starts separated by years of otherwise elite work.

Why it matters

The Yankees entered this stretch of the schedule sitting 4 games back in the AL East and holding the top Wild Card position at +9.0 relative to the cut line. A loss in a series finale does not crater a playoff position that comfortable, but it does extend the team's current losing streak to one game — and it does so with a reminder that even the rotation's anchor can have a start go sideways in the most dramatic fashion available.

Cole is the kind of pitcher whose outings tend to set the tone for a series. When he is sharp, the Yankees can absorb a rough night from the bullpen or a quiet offensive evening. When he surrenders three home runs before the lineup has batted once, the math of the game changes immediately and the rest of the roster is asked to climb out of a hole that was dug in the first few minutes of play.

There is also the historical footnote to sit with. Three home runs in the first three batters is a specific and rare kind of damage — it requires three separate pitches, three separate swings, and three separate moments where the ball clears the fence in sequence. That Cole has now reached this particular landmark twice in his career is the sort of fact that will follow him into broadcast booths and pregame notes for years, regardless of what the rest of his career line looks like.

The numbers

The Yankees carry an 81-62 record, good for a .566 winning percentage, and sit 2nd in the AL East. Their Wild Card standing is more comfortable: ranked 1st in the Wild Card race, they hold a +9.0 margin relative to the cut line. The loss moves the team to a current streak of L1.

Where the club stands

At 81-62 and 4 games back in the division, New York's path to October runs most cleanly through the Wild Card, where that +9.0 cushion provides meaningful separation from the cut line. The division remains in play, but the margin there requires sustained winning and help.

The schedule turns immediately to a home series against the Colorado Rockies at Yankee Stadium. Tuesday, September 8 brings Cam Schlittler against Gabriel Hughes. Wednesday, September 9 has Will Warren opposing Tomoyuki Sugano. Thursday, September 10 closes the series with Max Fried taking the ball against Ryan Feltner.

That is a rotation deployment worth noting in context. Cole's start against San Diego is now in the rearview, and the club turns to Schlittler and Warren before Fried closes the Rockies series. The schedule, at least on paper, offers a chance to stabilize before the calendar pushes deeper into September. The expanded 28-man roster that became available September 1 under standard league rules gives the club additional flexibility in how it manages the bullpen around those starts.

What we don't know yet

MLB.com's report establishes the fact of the three home runs and the loss, but does not detail Cole's full line from the start — how many innings he completed, how many total runs he allowed, or how the game ultimately unfolded beyond the opening sequence. The final score and the broader context of the Yankees' offensive response are not part of the reported material.

The report attributes the loss to the Yankees without specifying the margin or the manner in which the game concluded. Whether the Yankees mounted any kind of comeback, whether the bullpen held the damage, and whether the offense had any answer for the Padres are all questions the box score will answer but the current report does not.

What to watch

The obvious question after a start like this one is how Cole responds in his next outing. That is not a question this desk can answer — the schedule does not yet show his next projected start, and no timetable or rotation slot has been reported. What is visible is that the Yankees have three home games against Colorado coming up, with Schlittler, Warren, and Fried lined up in sequence.

The Wild Card cushion of +9.0 is real and it is substantial, but September has a way of compressing standings quickly. The Yankees' ability to protect that position depends in part on the rotation performing consistently, and Cole's start against San Diego is a data point — an unusual one, historically speaking — that the club will want to treat as an outlier rather than a trend.

For now, the series against the Padres is closed. The Yankees are 81-62, they lead the Wild Card race, and their ace has just done something for the second time in his career that most pitchers never do once. The Rockies arrive Tuesday. The calendar does not pause for reflection.