After a stellar performance in his first rehab start against the Rochester Red Wings, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ pitcher Gerrit Cole didn’t have the same stuff when he started for the Indianapolis Indians in the series finale against the Toledo Mud Hens.

In his start against Rochester, Cole had five innings of work and gave up no runs with five hits, three walks and seven strikeouts. In comparison, on Tuesday night, in the Indians’ 9-4 loss, Cole’s final line was 4.1 innings, 10 hits, five runs (all earned), one walk and three strikeouts.

The goal was to have him throw 100 pitches since this was a rehab start, but he was one pitch shy of 74. It wasn’t that he was pitching bad, it was just that the Mud Hens were finding every way to connect with the pitches he was throwing. Of those 74 pitches 53 were for strikes.

Brent Morel returned from his stint with the Pirates and was the offensive star. He hit a three-run home run in the sixth inning to keep the game within a grand slam of being tied. The Mud Hens added two more runs in the eighth and had officially pulled away with the game. Matt Hague had an RBI in the eighth to bring the Tribe within five, but it was a deficit they were unable to overcome in the ninth.

The Tribe has a day off on Wednesday, but will be back in action on Thursday night to host the Red Wings for a four game series.

Indians’ Player of the Game:

Brent Morel

In his first game back with the Indians, he hit a three-run home run to straight away center. It was his only hit of the night, but it was the most important hit.

Final Box Score:

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Mud Hens	1	0	0	0	4	2	0	2	0		9	15	2
Indians	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	1	0		4	10	1

Winning Pitcher: Mike Belfiore (4-5, 3.56 ERA)
Losing Pitcher: Cole (1-1, 4.82 ERA)

Author’s Note:
This content was originally published on the Indiana Sports Report website.