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Cole has smashing debut with Pirates

It had been more than two years since I had been to a baseball game.

That ended Tuesday night.
Gerrit Cole warming up. Pic courtesy of my lousy phone camera.

And what a night to catch a game; it was a playoff-like atmosphere at PNC Park.

Gerrit Cole had a smashing debut, striking out his first batter faced on three pitches. In his first at-bat, he drove in two runs.

Starling Marte hit a homer, Pedro Alvarez hit one, too, and the Pirates beat the World Champion Giants 8-2.

What more could you want?
Burger featuring egg and bacon on a doughnut.

Well, I guess the timing for the metal-detector wands, but the Pirates admitted their mistake on that one.

That wouldn't have been much of a problem if there weren't 30,000 fans there.

Everyone, it seemed, wanted to see Cole's first start.

He hit the upper-90s, including 98 in the seventh inning.

He only struck out two, but he had tremendous control -- he didn't walk a batter and had a three-ball count on only one batter, I believe.

It's one game, I keep telling myself, but it was quite a game.

It's one to remember, especially if Cole lives up to the hype being the first overall pick in the 2011 draft.


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