Gerrit Cole struggles for first time since return as Yankees fall to Guardians again
For the first time since his return, Gerrit Cole looked human.For the first time since completing his comeback from Tommy John surgery and getting what manager Aaron Boone described as a “new elbow,” Cole surrendered a run — four of them — and was hurt by the long ball.And against an Aaron Judge-less lineup, that was more than enough for the Guardians.
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He still flashed his vintage, pre-surgery form, an encouraging sign for a banged-up Yankees team clinging to its remaining healthy stars.But their offense managed just five hits — two of those solo homers — and didn’t come close to cobbling together nearly enough production with Judge’s status looming.Even after eight innings of inconsistency, the Yankees had a chance in the ninth while trailing by two runs.
Paul Goldschmidt doubled to lead off the inning and scored on Cody Bellinger’s deep sacrifice fly to pull them within a run.Jazz Chisholm Jr.
struck out and José Caballero flew out, though, to end the comeback attempt.Cole breezed through the first inning with just eight pitches, but Kyle Manzardo sent a ball over the right-field fence to lead off the second and give the Guardians a 1-0 lead.Rhys Hoskins crushed a slider over the left-field fence two frames later, giving Cleveland the lead back again after Chisholm evened the game with a solo homer of his own.
And to lead off the fifth, José Ramírez added the Guardians’ third homer of the night.Outside of those swings,...