Gerrit Cole Strikes Out Five in Season Debut as Yankees Fall in Extras to Orioles
After missing two and a half months with right elbow discomfort, New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole returned to the Bronx Wednesday night for his first start of 2024, and he picked up exactly where he left off last season.
The reigning American League Cy Young Award winner tossed four-plus innings against the Baltimore Orioles, allowing two runs on three hits and a walk while striking out five. He threw 62 pitches, landing 41 for strikes in his first big-league start since October.
Cole departed with a runner on first in the fifth inning, handing things over to New York’s bullpen, which surrendered five runs (four earned) the rest of the way en route to a 7-6, 10-inning defeat to Baltimore.
The six-time All-Star was supposed to be the Yankees’ Opening Day starter this season, an honour that ultimately fell to Nestor Cortes with his teammate beginning the regular season on the IL. Despite being unavailable, he remained around the team while rehabbing his elbow.
Once cleared for game action, Cole made three rehab starts – two at Double-A, one at Triple-A – pitching to a 0.73 ERA over 12.1 innings, punching out 19 – including 10 in his final outing last Friday.
“It was kind of a special game for me a little bit,” Cole told reporters of his outing post-game, including MLB.com’s Bill Ladson. “It has been a long few months, a lot of emotions. I wasn’t too sure how I was going to feel out there, but locating the ball quells the nerves a little bit.”
Baltimore’s offence struck first against Cole, with Ryan O’Hearn cashing Gunnar Henderson from second base for an RBI double to score the game’s first run. But the Yankees’ ace settled in after the first inning, retiring 10 of 11 batters faced entering the fifth.
It wasn’t the best version of himself, and understandably so, with the average velocity on Cole’s fastball (95 m.p.h.) down almost two ticks from 2023. However, his heater still maxed out at 97.5 and induced a pair of swings and misses.
“For the most part, the location was good. I felt like the pitches were crisp,” Cole said. “The consistency probably has to progress as well with the pitch count. There might be give and take as we keep going. We threw a great slider in a big spot. That’s encouraging.
“For the most part, I made some good pitches when we needed to make some pitches. There was a fair amount of adrenaline, which is nice to have. A few too many high fastballs, but for the most part, it was a good jolt.”
Though fatigue likely played a factor towards the end, Yankees manager Aaron Boone echoed a similar sentiment while watching his All-Star hurler make an encouraging return from his two-plus month absence while facing one of the game’s most potent lineups.
“I thought Gerrit was good. I thought he got better as he went [along],” Boone said. “I thought he did a good job in the third inning with that runner on second and you are kind of [facing] the meat of the order. He kind of slowed the game down really well. He was really under control. He started to get the strikeout ball a little there.”
The Yankees’ starting rotation – which has dominated without Cole, leading the majors in ERA (2.87) – is set to become even more daunting to opposing teams now that their ace has returned. He rejoins a staff that’s enjoyed impressive first-half showings from Luis Gil and Carlos Rodón.
But it’s not all positive news for the Bronx Bombers, as they’ll be without first baseman Anthony Rizzo – transferred to the 60-day IL on Wednesday – for likely eight weeks due to a fractured right forearm. However, his ailment won’t require surgery.
New York’s top prospect, Jasson Domínguez, faces a similar recovery timeline as he may also miss a few months after suffering a left oblique strain. His second IL stint comes just a couple of weeks after returning from last September’s Tommy John surgery.
Thankfully, the Yankees have dodged a bullet with fellow outfielder Aaron Judge, who left Tuesday’s game following a hit-by-pitch to his left hand but returned to the lineup for Thursday’s series finale against the O’s.
-Thomas Hall
Twitter: @Hall_Thomas_
Photo: Adc95. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
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