There was warranted concern when Gerrit Cole was scratched from his start on the day of the trade deadline with what the Yankees called “general body fatigue.”
No matter what moves the club made that day, nothing was going to come close to the kind of impact a healthy Cole could provide down the stretch and into October if he rediscovered his groove.
Three starts later, the right-hander is looking much closer to finding that form.
Cole turned in his first scoreless outing of the season, tossing six shutout innings to lift the Yankees to a 3-0 win over the Tigers on Friday night at Comerica Park.
New York Yankees starting pitcher Gerrit Cole (45) throws a pitch against the Detroit Tigers in the fifth inning at Comerica Park.
“It was impressive,” said Aaron Judge, who capped off the scoring with his 44th home run of the season, a solo shot in the eighth inning. “Even from the first inning, fastball command was there, [velocity] was ticking up, and that slider and curveball have been really sharp these past two outings. So that was impressive to see.
“When he’s looking like that, I want him to go all nine innings.”
The opposing lineup won’t be mistaken for Murderers’ Row any time soon, but Cole stifled the Tigers (59-64) anyway while striking out eight and allowing just six base runners.
It marked only the third time this season (in 10 starts) he has completed six innings after missing the first two and a half months with elbow nerve inflammation.
In the three starts since being scratched against the Phillies, Cole has a 1.59 ERA with 22 strikeouts in 17 innings.
New York Yankees starting pitcher Gerrit Cole (45) throws a pitch against the Detroit Tigers in the fifth inning at Comerica Park.
On Friday, he led the Yankees (73-50) to their third straight win while moving a game ahead of the Orioles for first place in the AL East.
“Today was good — the last few have been really good,” Cole said. “I was able to dial it back, push it up and locate at both those ends of the spectrum. So that’s a good sign.”
There were still some residuals of the missed start his last time out, when Cole struck out 10 across 5 ¹/₃ innings of one-run ball but was pulled after just 90 pitches on what Aaron Boone called a “pretty strict” pitch count.
New York Yankees center fielder Aaron Judge (99) celebrates in the dugout after hitting a solo home run against the Detroit Tigers in the eighth inning at Comerica Park.
But Cole got to 95 pitches Friday — the last one coming on a 96 mph fastball that caught Jace Jung looking to strand a pair of runners in the sixth inning.
“I thought he did a good job of just really being under control,” Boone said. “Another good one.”
Cole then turned it over to the bullpen, with Luke Weaver, Tommy Kahnle and Clay Holmes each tossing a scoreless inning — with Jose Trevino catching the combined shutout in his first game back from the injured list — to close out the win, the Yankees’ 13th in their last 18 games.
The seventh inning got dicey after Anthony Volpe dropped a popup with two outs, as the Tigers put runners on second and third.
New York Yankees’ Oswald Peraza rounds the bases after a solo home run during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers, Friday, Aug. 16, 2024, in Detroit.
But Weaver buckled down to pick up his shortstop and get out of the jam.
That helped make three runs from the Yankees stand up.
After the Yankees took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, they got the rest of their offense from a pair of solo home runs — Oswald Peraza’s first of the year in the fifth inning, in his season debut, and another moonshot from Judge in his first game after hitting the 300th of his career.
“Very happy to be able to contribute there,” Peraza said through an interpreter. “I’ve been working very hard in Triple-A to get that confidence back. To come up here and be able to help, especially in a win, to get results and help win game, extremely happy.”
