How did Gerrit Cole perform on his return from injury for the Yankees against the Orioles?

The Baltimore Orioles ruined Gerrit Cole’s return to action after an injury layoff, defeating the New York Yankees 7-6 in 10 innings in the pitcher’s first game of the 2024 MLB season. The 33-year-old missed the first three months of the campaign after suffering an elbow injury during Spring Training but appeared to come through his comeback unscathed, even if he wasn’t able to lead his team to the victory they would’ve wanted.

Gerriot Cole’s stats against the Orioles

The 2023 American League Cy Young Award winner pitched four-plus innings, allowing two runs on three hits and striking out five opponents in 62 pitches, 41 for strikes.

After a somewhat slow opening, in which the Orioles’ Gunnar Hunderson started the game with a double, Cole came to the fore in the third inning, fanning Jorge Mateo, Adley Rutschman and Ryan Mountcastle, in addition to walking Gunnar Henderson.

With the score tied at 1, Cole was replaced by Ron Marinaccio at the top of the fifth inning and received a huge ovation from fans inside Yankee Stadium. Almost immediately, Marinaccio allowed a two-run homer to Ramón Urías and an RBI double to O’Hearn.

Cole and Aaron Boone on pitcher’s injury return

“For the most part, I made some good pitches when we needed to make some pitches,” Cole stated after the game. “There was a fair amount of adrenaline, which is nice to have. A few too many high fastballs, but for the most part, it was a good jolt.”

Yankees manager Aaron Boone was also satisfied with his star pitcher’s return and knows he will only get stronger as he further steps up his recovery.

“I thought Gerrit was good. I thought he got better as he went along. I thought he did a good job in the third inning with that runner on second and you are kind of [facing] the meat of the order. He kind of slowed the game down really well. He was really under control. He started to get the strikeout ball a little there.”