Late collapse spoils Gerrit Cole’s return
- Davis Cornell
- May 22
- 4 min read
The Rays took down the Yankees 4-2 as the bullpen fell apart late. Gerrit Cole made his first start in 569 days, coming back from Tommy John surgery, and faced off against Nick Martinez.
“It was almost like a second debut,” Cole said. “It was an enjoyable moment and it was nice to get back in the fire.”
Cole surrendered a single to lead off the ballgame, followed by a walk. However, Cole induced a flyout, picked off Chandler Simpson, and recorded his first strikeout of the season to work into and out of trouble.
Trent Grisham led off the bottom of the first with a double into the left field corner. Aaron Judge followed with a walk. But Ben Rice popped out, Cody Bellinger flew out, and Paul Goldschmidt grounded out to strand Judge and Grisham.
Cole walked Richie Palacios to lead off the second inning. Then picked up the next three outs thanks to a beautiful diving catch from Judge.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. led off the bottom of the inning with a single to left center. José Caballero grounded out to first in his first at-bat since returning from the IL to move Jazz up to second.
In the top of the third, Cole worked a nice and easy 1-2-3 inning on six pitches, making it three shutout innings for him to kick off his season.
Grisham led off the bottom of the third with his second double of the game. Ben Rice then lined a single to right field, and for whatever reason, Luis Rojas sent Grisham, who missed yesterday with knee soreness, and he was gunned down at the plate.
Cole continued to be efficient in the fourth inning, retiring the Rays in order on just four pitches. In the top of the fifth inning, Cole allowed a leadoff single and walked No. 9 hitter Taylor Walls on four pitches with two outs, but Cole induced a groundout to work another scoreless frame.
Austin Wells crushed a solo shot to right-center leading off the bottom of the fifth inning, his first home run since April 28, giving the Yankees a 1-0 lead.
Cole retired the Rays in order in the sixth inning and recorded his second strikeout of the ballgame.
With one out in the bottom of the sixth, Caballero singled, his second hit of the night, but he was thrown out trying to steal second.
Brent Headrick replaced Cole to start the top of the seventh and allowed a one-out single as well as a double, putting the tying run on third and the go-ahead run on second. Fernando Cruz took over for Headrick and picked up two huge strikeouts to keep the Yankees' lead intact and was fired up.
Final line for Cole: Six shutout innings, two hits allowed, walking three, and striking out two on 72 pitches. He threw his fastball 49% of the time, the sinker 18%, the slider 14%, the changeup 11%, and the knuckle curve 8%. Cole topped out at 98.6, averaging 96.1 mph on his heater, but only had five whiffs.
“I feel like that was a smart play,” Cole said on being pulled after 72 pitches. “It may seem easy, but it was a high-pressure, tough game. I had one quick inning, and we made some great defensive plays that led to some of that efficiency as well. So overall, it was good work for what we had out there.”
Tim Hill got the call for the top of the eighth inning. It looked like he picked up the first out, but an error from Caballero allowed Simpson, one of the fastest runners in baseball, to reach. Jonathan Aranda followed with an RBI double to tie the game and put two runners in scoring position. Palacios gave the Rays a 3-1 lead with a two-run single that kicked off Hill's glove. Camilo Doval came in with runners on the corners and nobody out and allowed a sac fly to make it 4-1. It looked like the throw from Belli had him, but Wells couldn't hang on.
Belli ripped a one-out double off the top of the wall in right field in the bottom of the eighth. With two outs, Jazz laced an RBI triple in the right-center gap to cut the Rays' lead in half. But Caballero grounded out to second, stranding Jazz at third.
David Bednar came in for the top of the ninth inning and struck out the side to keep the Yankees' deficit at two runs.
Wells drew a one-out walk in the bottom of the ninth to bring the tying run to the plate. But Grisham grounded out, and Judge flew out to the deepest part of the ballpark, 396 feet away to left center, just missing a game-tying bomb to end the ballgame.
“I thought we swung the bats well tonight,” Aaron Boone said. “This was not the last couple of nights where we really struggled...we didn't have much to show for it, but I was encouraged with what I saw.”
The Yankees will look to bounce back tomorrow and end their three-game losing streak. Ryan Weathers will get the starting nod for the Yankees and face off against Drew Rasmussen. The first pitch is slated for 1:35 p.m. ET on the YES Network.
My thoughts on the game: Cole was dominant in his return. I would have liked Boone to keep him in for the seventh, but they were being cautious with him. Headrick didn't look great, but Cruz bailed him out with a pair of huge strikeouts. Hill got dinked and dunked to death, not recording an out and allowing four runs, only three earned due to an error from Cabby. Doval did a great job of limiting the damage and keeping the Yankees' deficit to just three runs. Bednar looked great; it would be nice if they could get him back into last year's form. The offense was putting together hits tonight, with 11, but they just couldn't come through with that big hit when they needed it most. Grisham had three hits in his return to the lineup. Belli, Jazz, and Cabby all had multi-hit nights. Wells hit his first home run in nearly a month; he now has six RBIs in the first two months of the season. The Yankees just need more production from him. The Rays now have a 5.5-game lead over the Yankees. On to tomorrow, which feels like a must-win game.
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