Strike that wasn't turns tide against Cole

ST. PETERSBURG -- The sixth inning was over, Gerrit Cole thought, having pumped a 99 mph fastball past Ji-Man Choi for what he expected to be a called third strike. His teammates halted their moves toward the visiting dugout, and with first base awarded on a fourth ball, the Yankees' ace scowled and spat as he stalked behind the mound at Tropicana Field.

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Cole knew that he shouldn’t let one call ruin a strong performance. Still, Cole barked to home-plate umpire Edwin Moscoso: “You missed that one!” Two batters later, Cole grimaced again after Randy Arozarena’s game-tying single -- arguably the turning point of the Yankees’ 3-1 loss to the Rays on Saturday afternoon.

“It’s kind of a bummer,” Cole said, with a shrug. “Whatever.”

Yandy Díaz and Manuel Margot later connected on run-scoring singles off Michael King to tip the day in the Rays’ favor, but Cole’s full-count offering to Choi still might have been a footnote if not for what transpired next. Cole’s next four pitches all missed the strike zone, resulting in a free pass to Wander Franco.

“I think he was just being careful with Franco in that situation and wasn’t going to get beat there,” manager Aaron Boone said. “I don’t think [Cole was rattled by Choi’s walk]. I think he was just going to make his pitch.”

Cole tried a 1-1 cutter that Arozarena looped over shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa into left field, leaving the right-hander to watch helplessly as Choi slid home safely ahead of a throw from left fielder Miguel Andújar.

“I was actually aware of the fact that Arozarena could be sniffing that slider a little bit, so I went to the cutter there, trying to give him a different look,” Cole said. “It was a great pitch. A little bit of tough luck there. We just did the best we could there and made a lot of good pitches.”

After retiring Manuel Margot for the final out of the sixth, Cole immediately grabbed an iPad atop the dugout bench, where he checked to see if the 3-2 pitch to Choi looked different from a center-field camera. The footage did not sway his opinion.

“I looked at it anyway, but yeah, that was a strike,” Cole said.

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Said Rays manager Kevin Cash: “Big at-bat. You've got to have a lot of trust in your ability to sit and lay off some of those close pitches. It felt like there were just a lot of close pitches all night long.”

That blip spoiled what was otherwise an excellent outing for Cole, who struck out 10 and scattered just two hits -- Francisco Mejía’s single with two outs in the fifth and the Arozarena flare in the sixth.

Cole walked three in the 105-pitch effort, which followed sterling eight-inning outings by Nestor Cortes and Jameson Taillon in the first two games of the series.

“I thought his stuff was electric tonight,” Boone said of Cole. “Even his misses were just off. It felt like he was really dotting it most of the night.”

The Yankees were largely held in check by Corey Kluber, who settled in after a shaky opening frame that saw DJ LeMahieu double off the right-field wall in his return to the lineup from left wrist soreness, advance on Aaron Judge’s single and score on Anthony Rizzo’s sacrifice fly.

“I wish we could have got more going against him,” LeMahieu said.

Kluber -- who spent last season with the Yankees and threw a no-hitter -- spun six strong innings, with J.P. Feyereisen, Jason Adam and Colin Poche each tossing a scoreless frame.

“Corey was on. Really, everybody they brought in was on,” Cole said. “We struggled to get another baserunner on after the first for quite a few innings, so it was pretty tight. It forces you to make some pitches. We made a lot of good pitches and kept us in the ballgame.”