BALTIMORE — If the Yankees want to get back to the kind of performance they were in the first two-plus months of this season, they have a ton of problems to sort out.
Gerrit Cole may have given his team reason to hope he’s back to his best after getting off to the best start of the shortened season with a 4-1 win over Baltimore at Camden Yards on Friday.
The win was somewhat overshadowed by fireworks in the ninth inning when Clay Holmes hit Heston Kjellstad in the head and the benches emptied, but the early part of the game was dominated by a solid performance on the mound from Cole.
He allowed just one run in two innings and pitched a season-high six innings, throwing 106 pitches — his most innings so far this season since missing most of the first half of the season with an elbow injury this spring.
“I thought he was a great pitcher,” manager Aaron Boone said of Cole, who had not pitched more than five innings in any of his four starts.
“He looked like our ace,” the manager said.
Cole allowed five hits, walked one and struck out seven, but said his control improved as the game went on on a muggy Baltimore night.
After Ramon Urias’ timely triple to right, Cole recovered and struck out Gunnar Henderson trying to end the bottom of the second, allowing just two more runners for the rest of the start.
“He was in good form the whole game,” Boone said. “I thought he was crisp. The way he competed was great. He had a keen sense and he was having fun.”
Boone also called the six innings “huge” for a Yankees pitching staff whose bullpen has been put through some hard work recently.
Aaron Judge called Cole’s performance “impressive.”
“It’s one of the best offenses, if not the best, in the American League,” Judge said of the Orioles’ high-octane lineup. “What he’s done for us coming in is he’s been effective on both sides of the plate and especially getting outs. [when] “At the top of that lineup we have Henderson. He’s the MVP right now. It’s electrifying to see him step out on the court and start attacking.”
Cole would say only that his first two innings were shaky but that he got better control of his pitches after that.
Henderson and Adley Rutsman reached base early in the bottom of the first before Cole got three outs.
Cole is still not back to the form that saw him unanimously win the American League Cy Young Award last year, but this was the second time he has looked close to that form since returning last month, following another outstanding performance on June 30 at Toronto.
But Cole appeared to have regressed in his last outing against the Red Sox, giving up four runs in 4 1/3 innings.
“He’s one of the great pitchers of his generation,” Boone said. “He’s an ace. He loves the challenge and the competition. Watching him today, he was in control of the game.”
