KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Everyone around Gerrit Cole are eager to talk about how good he looked. But he wants to talk about how little it proved.
Moments after carving up the Royals on Wednesday night, the right-hander waved off the growing hype with two words that cut against the mood of the room. “Small sample size,” the former Cy Young winner said of his blistering start to the season. It was a deliberate bit of cold water, and it spoke to exactly the kind of pitcher the Yankees got back atop their rotation.
The performance itself begged to be celebrated. Cole struck out 10 over 6 2/3 scoreless innings, scattering four hits without a walk, as the Yankees rolled to a 7-0 win and a three-game sweep over the Royals at Kauffman Stadium. It was his second start since returning from Tommy John surgery, and somehow it was even better than the first. The victory was New York’s 14th straight over Kansas City and pushed the Yankees to 34-22.
Power and pinpoint command carry Cole’s encore
Cole made it look almost routine for the Yankees. He needed just 79 pitches to get through nearly seven innings, sitting at only 57 through five. He threw first-pitch strikes to 16 of the 23 hitters he faced. He reached a three-ball count just twice all night. His fastball touched 98.4 mph and sat around 96, and he layered in both breaking balls, a cutter and several sharp changeups.
That blend of power and precision is what stood out most to the Yankees. After managing only two strikeouts in his debut against Tampa Bay, Cole matched that total in the first inning alone and piled up seven through four frames. The command was the bigger story. He had walked three Rays five days earlier. He walked none against the Royals, the kind of control that often takes Tommy John patients far longer to recover.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone has rarely sounded so pleased about a pitcher he has watched for years. He framed the leap between Cole’s two outings in culinary terms.
“I feel like maybe the first game was the appetizer,” Boone said, “and that was the main course right there. That was surgical.”
History says this Cole may be better than ever
Here is the part Cole would rather downplay: this version of him may be better than ever. The numbers behind his Yankees return are staggering for a player just two starts removed from a 569-day absence. Cole has yet to allow a run across 12 2/3 innings this season. According to YES Network researcher Katie Sharp, he is the first pitcher in Yankees history to open a season with at least 12 innings, at least 12 strikeouts, zero runs and nine or fewer baserunners through two starts.
The historical company Cole keeps as a Yankee is just as rich. MLB.com’s Sarah Langs noted that Cole now owns 28 career games with 10 or more strikeouts as a Yankee, the most in franchise history, ahead of Ron Guidry, David Cone and CC Sabathia. He is also the first Yankees pitcher since Mel Stottlemyre in 1967 to log more than 12 innings and more than 12 strikeouts through his first two starts of a season.
Cole, true to form, kept the focus on the work still ahead. He has no interest in declaring himself fixed after a single dominant week.
“It’s two games. Small sample size,” Cole said. “We still have stuff to improve and just have to keep the same mindset that we have right now, and that’s to take it one outing at a time.”
Cole shrugs off a thin cushion and credits the defense
What makes the restraint notable is that the Yankees gave him almost no margin to work with. The Yankees offense, so explosive in Tuesday’s 15-1 rout, went quiet early. Royals lefty Noah Cameron retired the first nine hitters in order. The Yankees did not score until the fourth, when Paul Goldschmidt singled, Ben Rice tripled off the left field wall and Aaron Judge brought him home with a sacrifice fly for a slim 2-0 lead.
Cole acknowledged that pitching with a thin cushion changes the calculation on the mound. He pointed to the defense behind him as the reason the lead held up.
“I expect to execute pitches. I don’t necessarily expect to not give up any runs, especially on 75% strikes,” Cole said. “So you have to play good defense, which is what we did tonight.”
The defining defensive play came in the third inning, and Cole credited the Yankees defense with setting the tone. After Michael Massey doubled and tried to score on Maikel Garcia’s single to right, Judge fielded the ball on a hop and fired a strike home. Catcher Austin Wells slapped the tag on Massey for the third out, preserving the shutout.
Judge, the Yankees captain who has watched plenty of great arms, did not hold back on his teammate. He placed Cole’s comeback in elite historical context.
“He’s one of the greatest to ever do it, and you see it with starts like this where you come back from major surgery and it looks like you haven’t even skipped a beat,” Judge said.
The Yankees finally pulled away after Cole departed the game. They scored three in the seventh on Goldschmidt’s bases-loaded walk and Rice’s two-run single, then Ryan McMahon added a two-run homer in the eighth for the Yankees. Rice finished with three RBI for the Yankees, and the bullpen of Fernando Cruz and Camilo Doval closed out the shutout.
McMahon, who faced Cole only in practice, summed up the unease hitters feel against him.
“I wouldn’t want to face him, that’s all I know,” McMahon said.
Cole will get an extra day before his third start as the Yankees manage his elbow carefully this season. He keeps insisting it is early. The growing pile of evidence keeps suggesting otherwise.
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