Gerrit Cole is on the same page as Madison Bumgarner.

The Astros starter and 2018 American League Cy Young candidate has no interest in pitching behind an opener. He said he's not quite as against it as Bumgarner, though, who said he would walk out of the ballpark if he found out manager Bruce Bochy started his game with a reliever.

"I would probably handle it with just as much passion, but I don't know if I'd just walk out," Cole said, via the Houston Chronicle. "I'd probably do it a little differently, I'm not Madison. Madison is going to put his country boots on and go chop a tree down or something afterward. But I would not be OK with it, no."

Cole was one of just 13 pitchers in MLB last season to throw 200 or more innings. He had a career year, striking out 276 batters and posting a 2.88 ERA.

He also allowed batters to hit just .186 against him in the first inning and stayed strong deep into games, holding batters to a .208 average in the seventh.

He doesn't seem like a likely candidate for an opener, as the role is often used for pitchers who struggle in the first inning of starts. But he wouldn't want to watch a game himself that featured one, either.

"There's a human element here that you start to lose when you just start rattling off the best mathematical equation to get an out," Cole said. "I certainly wouldn't pay a ticket to watch a math equation, I want to go watch a human interaction and human competition."