Gerrit Cole was crisp, sharp and efficient in his return from COVID-19 on Monday night against the Angels.
The only question was how many pitches manager Aaron Boone would allow his ace to throw in his first start since July 29.
The answer: 90.
With excellent bullpen help from an unusual cast of relievers, it was enough for Cole and the Yankees to take a 2-1 victory before 37,010 at Yankee Stadium.
Cole (11-6) allowed one run, two hits and a walk in 5 2/3 innings, striking out nine. Zack Britton, Albert Abreu, Joely Rodriguez and Chad Green (fourth save) finished the three-hitter for the Yankees, who got all the runs they would need on Joey Gallo’s two-run homer into the second deck in rightfield in the first.
The Yankees have won 15 of their last 20 games and 25 of the last 36.
Cole could have gone six full innings, but fill-in third baseman Rougned Odor booted a slow two-out grounder hit by Justin Upton for an error.
With lefthanded-hitting cleanup man Jared Walsh due up, Boone replaced Cole with Britton, the struggling lefthander. Britton struck out Walsh to end the inning.
Other than Cole’s pitch limit, the other intrigue in Monday’s makeup game from a July 1 rainout came when the righthander faced MLB home run leader Shohei Ohtani.
Ohtani led off the sixth with a moonshot to right-center that got the fans out of their seats and looked as if it might be his 40th homer. Cole thought it was gone, but Giancarlo Stanton caught the drive on the lip of the warning track.
Cole’s first pitch of the game was a 99-mph fastball that Ohtani swung through. On 2-and-2, he missed another 99-mph heater for strike three.
The second batter, David Fletcher, also struck out on a fastball, this one at 98.
Cole fell behind Justin Upton 3-and-0 before throwing a strike. On 3-and-1, Cole fired another 98-mph fastball, and Upton crushed it into the leftfield seats.
Cole recovered to strike out Walsh on a high 3-and-2 changeup to end the inning.
The lesson that pitchers should try to get ahead also was on display in the bottom half of the first. Angels starter Jose Suarez fell behind Gallo 3-and-1 before giving up Gallo’s fourth home run as a Yankee and 29th overall. The 412-foot shot left the bat at 112.1 mph.
In the second, Cole worked around a leadoff infield single by Phil Gosselin. After a soft comebacker moved Gosselin to second, Cole blew away Brandon Marsh, striking him out on three pitches. The third was a 100-mph fastball that Marsh watched go by without offering.
Cole struck out Max Stassi on a 98-mph fastball to end the inning.
In the third, Cole went to 3-and-2 on No. 9 hitter Jo Adell before striking out the rookie on a 98-mph fastball. Ohtani hit a fly ball to right and Fletcher grounded out to first.
The fourth inning was another 1-2-3: strikeout, strikeout, grounder to third against the 3-4-5 hitters in the Angels’ order.
Cole came out for the fifth having thrown 60 pitches. He issued a one-out walk to Marsh — choosing to throw a slider on 3-and-2 — to end a streak of batters retired at 10.
Cole went back to the slider to strike out Stassi for the second out. Adell, one of the top prospects in baseball, then sent a rocket to right-center that Jonathan Davis ran down and caught on the warning track. Off the bat, it looked like a game-tying double.
Abreu, who picked up his first big-league save on Saturday, took over in the seventh and retired all five batters he faced with two strikeouts.
Rodriguez struck out Ohtani looking at an outside corner fastball for the final out of the eighth.
Green, who gave up a tying home run by Jose Abreu of the White Sox in the ninth inning on Saturday and ended up the winning pitcher, gave up an opposite-field single by Walsh with two outs before striking out Gosselin looking for the final out.
The Yankees had a golden opportunity to expand their lead when Suarez walked the first three batters in the sixth. Angels manager Joe Maddon called in righthander Steve Cishek, who struck out Stanton and got Luke Voit to ground the next pitch into a 5-4-3 double play.
The first two Yankees reached in the eighth, but DJ LeMahieu was thrown out trying to steal third for the first out. Gallo struck out and Stanton hit a high (but not all that deep) fly ball to left.
