Yankees miscues, bullpen spoil Gerrit Cole’s season debut in 4-2 loss to Rays

After 569 days between outings in the major leagues, Gerrit Cole returned Friday night and looked a lot like vintage Cole. Well, with fewer strikeouts than usual.

Still, Cole was excellent, throwing six shutout innings in his comeback from Tommy John surgery. He got close to 99 miles per hour on the radar gun and gave the Yankees and their fans every reason to believe their ace is indeed back and at least close to his full powers.

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The Yankees’ other returning player — José Caballero — didn’t fare quite as well. Caballero was back at shortstop in place of Anthony Volpe, but made a key error in the eighth inning to help the Rays start a game-tilting four-run rally. Tampa Bay ended up with a 4-2 victory in front of 41,358 at Yankee Stadium.

The Yanks’ loss dropped them to 30-22 on the season and they are 5.5 games behind the first-place Rays (34-15) in the AL East. The Rays are 4-0 against the Yankees so far this year.

Here are the takeaways…

-Cole might not have been missing bats the way he has throughout his career – he only induced five swings-and-misses, according to Statcast. But he was economical all night. He only used four pitches to get three outs in the air in the fourth inning, meaning he had only thrown 42 pitches through that point. He finished throwing 72 pitches over six frames, 50 of them for strikes.

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Cole, who missed the first 51 games of this season and all of 2025, made six rehab starts before joining the big-league roster. He had been set for a seventh, but the Yankees believed he had crossed enough thresholds that he belonged with them instead. Based on the way he pitched, they nailed it. The three walks were a bit uncharacteristic for Cole, but other pitchers have said command was one of the final things to come online at the end of Tommy John rehab, so perhaps that offers an explanation of sorts.

-In the ninth inning, the Yankees brought the tying run to the plate in the form of a struggling Aaron Judge, who came into the game 1-for-his-last–20 and 0-for-his-previous-11. With a runner on second base and two out, Judge put a charge in one, but it was caught on the warning track in center. Judge finished 0-for-4 with a walk. The Yanks had 11 hits, but could only muster two runs. They were 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left nine runners on base.

-In the eighth, Chandler Simpson hit a grounder leading off that Caballero botched for his fourth error of the season. Entering the game, some defensive metrics ranked Caballero as the best fielding shortstop in baseball. The Rays scored four runs in the inning – three earned – on an RBI double by Jonathan Aranda, a two-run single by Richie Palacios that was deflected by reliever Tim Hill and a sacrifice fly by Ryan Vilade. Reliever Camilo Doval got out of the mess with the help of a pickoff at second base – the Yankees’ second of the game.

-The Yankees got within 4-2 in their half of the eighth. Cody Bellinger hit a one-out double to right and scored on Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s triple to right-center one out later. But they couldn’t tack on more – Caballero followed with a groundout to end the inning.

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-As good as he was overall, Cole felt pressure quickly – Simpson hit the second pitch of the game for a single and then Cole walked Junior Caminero. But Cole escaped. He retired Aranda on a fly ball and then picked off Simpson at second base. Then he got his first strikeout, catching Yandy Díaz looking at a 97 mile-per-hour sinker. Earlier in the inning, Cole had hit 98.6 mph on the radar gun, his high mark of the night.

-There has been a lot of teeth-gnashing over the Yankees’ catching corps, with them not getting much offense from behind the plate. But Austin Wells showed why his skill set can be enticing when he led off the fifth innings. Wells, who entered the game with a .165 batting average and a meager .539 OPS, smacked the first pitch of the inning into the right-field stands for his fourth home run of the year. It was only his sixth RBI thus far, but it gave the Yanks a 1-0 lead.

-With one out and a man on first in the Rays’ fifth, Chisholm let a pop fly fall to the earth on purpose, a cagey play. Chisholm then scooped up the ball and fired to second for a force out, which removed the speedy Cedric Mullins from the basepaths in exchange for the catcher, Nick Fortes, who reached first via the fielder’s choice. Cole and the other Yankees pointed at Chisholm afterward to recognize him for the savvy play. After a walk, Cole retired Simpson on a groundout to end the inning.

-The Yanks had good chances in the first and third innings, but came up empty. Trent Grisham, who came into the night batting just .174, led off both frames with doubles. In the first, Judge followed with a walk, but Rays starter Nick Martinez retired the next three hitters. In the third inning, Ben Rice hit a one-out single and Grisham chugged for home, but was thrown out at the plate by right fielder Jonny DeLuca.

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-The Rays threatened in the seventh inning when Mullins doubled with one out and a man on first against reliever Brent Headrick. That prompted another pitching change and Aaron Boone brought in Fernando Cruz to face Tampa’s 8-9 hitters. First, Cruz got Fortes to swing over a splitter for strike three and then he threw a fastball past Taylor Walls for strike three. Cruz bounded off the mound with a big fist pump in celebration.

Game MVP: Gerrit Cole

Cole, obviously. He allowed just two hits, both singles, and was only in serious trouble once. He struck out only two batters – Cole has averaged more than 10 strikeouts per nine innings in his career – and walked three. He threw three 1-2-3 innings. Only one ball hit into fair territory off Cole was clocked at more than 100 miles per hour off the bat, a lineout to right by Cedric Mullins.

Highlights