Bauer outduels Cole in battle after Twitter beef

After trading barbs the last four weeks, Cleveland Indians right-hander Trevor Bauer let his pitching do the talking Sunday against former college teammate Gerrit Cole and the Houston Astros.

With an opportunity to have his arm back up his mouth, Bauer stole the show. He allowed just five hits and struck out a season-high 13 batters across 7 1/3 innings and exited with the lead before the Indians bullpen imploded.

"It was kind of like old times in the sense that at (UCLA) he would pitch Friday and then I would go and try to one-up him," Bauer said of facing Cole, according to Jordan Bastian of MLB.com. "Today, he would pitch one inning and then I would pitch an inning and then back and forth - I don't want to speak for him, obviously - trying to one-up each other. And, ultimately, I think it turned out the best way possible."

Bauer drew the ire of the Astros earlier this month for insinuating that the team's pitchers were doctoring the baseballs with a potential foreign substance that helped increase spin rate. Those accusations didn't sit well with the reigning World Series champions and prompted Lance McCuller's Jr., Collin McHugh, and Alex Bregman to all respond on Twitter, while manager A.J. Hinch warned Bauer that he needed to "sweep (his) own front porch and deal with their own situations rather than throw accusations that are unfounded."

"You got some guy out there popping off, trying to (expletive) discredit people," McCullers said in early May. "Of course it’s going to make us angry. It gets guys frustrated."

The Indians played the Astros earlier this month following the tweets, though Bauer did not get to pitch. He did wear "Tyler" on his jersey sitting in the dugout in response to Bregman's tweet. Sunday's game was the last time the two are scheduled to meet in the regular season.

Adding additional fuel to the fire prior to Bauer's start was that it was against Cole, as it was reported that the two did not get along with each other during their time at UCLA.

Bauer, however, has downplayed the concept of any bad blood between the two.

"I know (USA TODAY had a) piece today. But, I have no problem with Gerrit," Bauer explained. "We had a rocky relationship in college, because he told me that I had no future in baseball and he insulted my work ethic as a freshman. I don’t take kindly to those couple things, so we had our issues. And I have, I don’t know, those feelings have long since faded. Right now, it’s cool to see him having success."