Gerrit Cole’s preparation for his start on Monday was much different than the first 225 of his career.
It began with a walk, just to get his heart rate up, five days after he tested positive for COVID-19 and experienced mild symptoms. He played catch with his wife, Amy, the next day and then had a throwing session the day after with teammate Jordan Montgomery, who had also contracted the virus.
The small steps soon turned into more normal one, throwing a bullpen session Friday in Chicago to get the final clearance he needed to make his return to the mound.
That finally came Monday, and Cole hardly skipped a beat to keep the Yankees’ winning ways alive and well.
The ace pitched into the sixth inning and gave up just one run, allowing Joey Gallo’s two-run homer to stand as the decisive blow in the Yankees’ 2-1 win over the Angels in The Bronx.
“That’s what we’ve been missing,” Aaron Judge said. “We’ve been missing having that big man toeing the rubber every five days for us. … We missed the energy, missed the intensity and missed him putting up zeroes on the board.”
The Yankees (66-52), who went 9-4 between Cole starts to keep chipping away at a playoff push, will enter Tuesday’s doubleheader against the Red Sox just 1 1/2 games back of the A’s for the second AL wild-card spot.
Making his first start since July 29 — he tested positive for COVID four days later — Cole gave up only one run, two hits and one walk over 5 ²/₃ innings while striking out nine. He threw 90 pitches and touched 100 mph.
“I was a bit prepared for if I didn’t really know where the balls were going to go,” Cole said. “The plan was to just attack the strike zone in the first and go from there.”
The recently shaky Yankees bullpen preserved the one-run lead, delivering 3 ¹/₃ innings of one-hit ball. Zack Britton got the final out of the sixth, Albert Abreu piled up five quick outs, Joely Rodriguez struck out Shohei Ohtani looking to end the eighth and Chad Green secured the save in the ninth against the (Mike Trout-less) heart of the Angels lineup.
Cole came out firing from the start, striking out Ohtani on a 99 mph fastball to begin the game. It was one of three punchouts he had in the first inning, but in between Justin Upton drilled a solo home run to left field.
The Angels’ lead didn’t last long, though. After Judge singled with one out in the bottom of the first, Gallo clobbered a two-run home run to the second deck in right field for the 2-1 Yankees lead. Gallo’s fourth home run as a Yankee — and third in three games — got out in a hurry, leaving his bat at 112.1 mph against Angels left-hander Jose Suarez.
A speedy Jonathan Davis helped keep the Yankees’ one-run lead intact with a man on first in the fifth inning, sprinting to deep center field to haul in a shot from Jo Adell.
Ohtani nearly tied the game with one swing in the sixth inning, but his deep drive settled into Giancarlo Stanton’s glove as he stood on the warning track in right-center field.
Manager Aaron Boone said after the game he was realistically hoping to get four or five innings from Cole. Instead the right-hander came within a Rougned Odor fielding error of getting through six on his own.
“I’m pretty tired right now to be honest,” Cole said. ”I probably could have surged a bit for another 15 pitches if needed. But we don’t have any off days coming up and I gotta make up some of those starts that I missed.”