After early struggles, Yankees’ Cole ends ‘strong’ in return to mound

NEW YORK — Alarms sounded Tuesday when the New York Yankees announced Gerrit Cole was a late scratch from his start against the Philadelphia Phillies. Cole insisted the decision was not related to an arm injury or any physical ailment. He was just not recovering as expected after his previous start.

Still, a tinge of concern permeated the fanbase for the rest of the week. Cole, after all, didn’t make his season debut until mid-June because of an elbow injury, and he is instrumental for the Yankees’ championship chances.

Cole soothed worries during his return to the mound Sunday in the Yankees’ 4-3 win in 10 innings over the Toronto Blue Jays. The reigning American League Cy Young Award winner was far from dominant, but he held the Blue Jays to two runs on six hits over 5 ⅔ innings.

“I’m certainly in a better spot physically than I was the other day,” Cole said. “Any player at any time will tell you to take that. It was definitely beneficial to have a few extra days, for sure.”

He recorded four strikeouts to zero walks — his first outing without a walk this season — and a hit batter. He threw 91 pitches, 60 for strikes. He generated just six swing-and-misses, but induced a season-best 36% chase rate while his fastball velocity averaged a season-best 96.5 mph.

He threw 47 fastballs, 21 curveballs, 14 cutters, 9 sliders and no changeups — the first time he didn’t throw a changeup in a start since July 23, 2020, according to ESPN Stats & Info. Cole said he didn’t throw a changeup — his fifth-best pitch — because it “didn’t really show up” in warmups and he believed he had other better options to navigate the Blue Jays’ lineup.

“I was in a good position to make pitches all day,” Cole said. “And then I kind of started to gain some momentum and steam as the game started rolling. So, you know, those are good markers for that area.”

The early returns were not promising. Toronto collected six hard-hit balls in the first three innings. They converted the loud contact into two runs in the second inning. Cole needed 54 pitches to record nine outs.

But Cole eventually settled into a rhythm in his first start in 11 days, retiring eight of the final nine batters he faced before Yankees manager Aaron Boone replaced him with Luke Weaver with the bases empty and two outs in the sixth inning. The performance lowered Cole’s ERA from 5.40 to 5.09 across 40 ⅔ innings in eight starts.

“I think it starts with his fastball,” Boone said. “They did a good job. They had some solid contact on his fastball. But I thought all day long he had a good fastball, good profile of it. And I thought he got really settled in as he went.”

Before the game, Boone said he would be more conservative than usual with Cole’s usage. In the end, Cole’s 91 pitches were a slight dropoff from the 100-plus-pitch workloads in his previous three outings. If all proceeds as scheduled, he’ll next take the mound Saturday against the Texas Rangers on five days’ rest.

“I think he tired a little bit there at the end,” Boone said. “And I wasn’t going to go more than 90, maybe 95 pitches anyway. But he finished real strong.”