NEW YORK – New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole’s assignment for his season debut Wednesday wasn’t easy: a mid-June clash against the Baltimore Orioles, his club’s main competition for team supremacy. East of the American League, after only three rehab starts fresh from an alarming elbow injury.
But Cole is not your typical pitcher, and the Yankees considered him ready knowing he would have to develop his toughness at the highest level. Working on the short leash Wednesday, the reigning Cy Young Award winner showed he was up to the challenge. He was ready, with a touch of rust, for four-plus innings in front of a sellout crowd at Yankee Stadium.
The right-hander allowed two runs and three hits. He had five strikeouts for every walk. He threw 62 pitches and induced six missed swings. His average fastball velocity dropped 1.6 mph from last season, but Cole still touched 97 mph.
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Before the game, Yankees manager Aaron Boone refused to share Cole’s pitch limit, because he did not want to give the Orioles a competitive advantage. But Cole was obviously going to be limited after he threw 68 pitches in 4⅓ innings in his third and final rehab start on Friday.
“Here we’ll train him conservatively to make him stronger,” Boone said. “And, frankly, with all of our guys we’ll see where they are and what we feel makes the most sense. But I don’t necessarily think it will be down the road. It’ll just be elevating (the pitches) conservatively, but also listening to each start to see where it is.” .
Cole took the mound at 7:07 pm to applause after a video montage played on the big screen highlighting his debut. “The Return of Gerrit Cole” was highly anticipated. It all started with a couple of bumps.
The Orioles inflicted most of the damage on Cole in the first inning. Gunnar Henderson opened the game with a jumper that bounced off the glove of second baseman Gleyber Torres into right field and was ruled a double. Two batters later, Ryan O’Hearn, facing 0-2, cut a slider for an RBI double with two outs.
Yankees ace Gerrit Cole, who made his long-awaited season debut Wednesday against the Orioles, allowed two runs on three hits in four-plus innings. He threw 62 pitches, struck out five and walked one. Lucas Hales//Keynote USA/Getty Images
Cole quickly regrouped. He only needed seven pitches to retire the team in the second inning. He issued a one-out walk to Henderson in the third. Henderson stole second base on the next pitch, but was stranded there as Cole recorded his first three strikeouts of the season in the inning.
Cole retired the team in order with two strikeouts in the fourth frame on 16 pitches. He took the mound for the fifth inning, but was removed by reliever Ron Marinaccio after allowing a first-pitch single to Cedric Mullins. The crowd showered Cole with a standing ovation. Cole, visibly upset by the end of his debut, greeted the fans twice with his glove.
He then watched Marinaccio hit a two-run homer off Ramón Urías for the second of two runs on his pitch line.
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