Cole turns – Gerrit Cole returned from Tommy John surgery and kept the Yankees in control against the White Sox, using a deep offensive cushion to complete six strong innings in a 12-2 win in the Bronx.
NEW YORK — Tuesday night, Gerrit Cole paced the Yankees’ dugout in the early innings, glove near his belt as he wriggled his right arm to keep it loose. He didn’t have to rush anything. Not with the way New York’s lineup was striking.
The Bombers needed just one spark to turn the game into a runaway. Spencer Jones, Ben Rice and Paul Goldschmidt homered off Davis Martin, giving Cole a hefty cushion over his six-inning effort in the Yankees’ 12-2 victory in the Bronx.
“They’re putting a lot of pressure on the opponent with quality at-bats, up and down the lineup,” Cole said. “It’s dynamic. It can be deadly in a handful of different ways.”
José Caballero added a homer in the eighth off position player Luisangel Acuña, and the division-leading Yankees kept rolling to their seventh win in eight games. The result moved them to 44-27, a season-high 17 games over .500.
Cole made sure the early fireworks didn’t fade into something manageable for the White Sox. With his fifth start since returning from Tommy John surgery, the right-hander served up a first-inning homer to Andrew Benintendi on a pitch he intended to elevate more.
Then he snapped the game back into his hands. Cole shrugged it off quickly and retired the next 13 batters. He didn’t pitch out of the stretch until Tristan Peters opened the sixth with a single.
“He was great. Vintage Cole right there,” catcher J.C. Escarra said. “He didn’t let that first-inning homer affect him. On the contrary, he was lights out right after that. It was a good one.”
Even with signs of fatigue in the sixth, Cole kept the damage limited. With his 90th pitch, he pinned the bases loaded and induced a Braden Montgomery groundout.
Overall, Cole allowed three hits, walked two and struck out six.
It’s still early enough that comparing this to his pre-injury form isn’t the point for him. With 28 innings now under his belt, Cole said he’s approaching each start like it’s blank space.
“I’m just laying down some base layer paint, and we’ll see what kind of Bob Ross concoction comes at the end of the year,” he said.
The numbers already look like progress. Cole improved to 2-1 with a 2.57 ERA, having allowed two runs or fewer in four of his five starts.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said he isn’t surprised by Cole’s early success, while stressing there’s more development still ahead.
“I think he would tell you there’s still so much more work and growth to get him where he wants to be,” Boone said. “I feel like by and large, he’s been pretty darn good. I think he would tell you that there’s a lot of little nuanced areas where he can continue to get better.”
The lineup, for its part, made it easier for Cole to build.
Davis Martin had permitted just three homers over his first 78 1/3 innings entering Tuesday’s game. The Yankees didn’t just break that streak—they came in leading the Majors with 102 homers, and they showed it.
In the second inning, Jones reached the second deck in right field for his second homer, a rocket that tied the score. It was Jones’ first homer at Yankee Stadium. He later worked a bases-loaded walk.
“You can visualize what the Major Leagues are going to be like, but until you’re in there and see it, expectation and reality don’t always match up,” Jones said. “That first [call-up] was a lot of new information, a lot of new things.”
Boone praised Jones’ plate appearances as well, saying, “He looked like he was real comfortable against a really good pitcher.”
New York kept adding runs in the third inning, highlighted by Cody Bellinger’s two-run single with the bases loaded. Rice hit his team-leading 20th homer in the fourth, and Goldschmidt added a two-run shot—his 10th.
“We just trusted that we were going to get some good pitches to hit,” Jones said. “Obviously, he’s got really good stuff. I think we just did a good job of laying off the pitches that he wanted to make.”
Even in a double-digit win, Cole said he saw a few things he wanted to tweak for his upcoming turn, exactly as Boone predicted.
But on a night where the Yankees’ offense gave him cushion and Cole proved he could respond after an early mistake, he could also appreciate the outline of what’s coming together.
“I’ve kept them in the ballgame every time,” Cole said. “So that feels pretty good.”
Gerrit Cole Yankees White Sox Davis Martin Tommy John surgery Bob Ross Spencer Jones Ben Rice Paul Goldschmidt J.C. Escarra Aaron Boone