Gerrit Cole shows off the beauty of pitchers hitting with a home run and double

Facing the D-backs on Thursday afternoon, the Pirates' Gerrit Cole heard the pleas of those who want the DH in the National League and whispered "No."
Coming to bat in the bottom of the second, Cole blasted a three-run home run a Statcast™-measured 408.5 feet to center field. Even better, it went straight into the bullpen, as a perfect "top that" to his fellow pitching teammates

Two innings later, he nearly had a second dinger. This time, the right-hander would have to settle for a mere double as his drive bounced up against the center-field wall. 

Cole's performance is just the latest in an excellent string of pitcher slugging this month. Bartolo Colon proved that the collective unconscious is a real thing as he made all of our dreams come true with a home run in San Diego. Noah Syndergaard went deep twice against the Dodgers in the first multi-home run game for a pitcher since Micah Owings pulled it off in 2007. And Zach Greinke continued his bat-flipping ways when he doubled while in the eminently fashionable D-backs throwbacks. 
Pitchers hitting: It's a beautiful sight.