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Jorge Castillo, ESPN Staff Writer
NEW YORK — New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole’s assignment for his season debut Wednesday wasn’t cushy: a mid-June clash against the loaded Baltimore Orioles, his club’s primary competition for American League East supremacy, after just three rehab starts fresh off an alarming elbow injury.
But Cole isn’t your typical pitcher, and the Yankees deemed him ready knowing he would have to build up his stamina at the highest level. Working with a short leash Wednesday, the reigning Cy Young Award winner proved he was up for the challenge. He was sharp, with a touch of rust, over four-plus innings in front of a sellout crowd at Yankee Stadium, though New York would go on to lose 7-6 in 10 innings.
The right-hander was charged with two runs on three hits. He compiled five strikeouts to one walk. He threw 62 pitches and induced six swing-and-misses. His average fastball velocity was down 1.6 mph from last season, but Cole still touched 97 mph.
Before the game, Yankees manager Aaron Boone declined to share Cole’s pitch limit, not wanting to give the Orioles a competitive edge. But Cole was obviously going to be limited after he was built up to 68 pitches over 4⅓ innings in his third and final rehab start Friday.
“We’ll build him conservatively here to get him built up,” Boone said. “And, frankly, with all our guys we’ll kind of see where they’re at and what we feel like makes the most sense. But I don’t necessarily think it’ll be extra moving forward. It’ll just be conservatively getting [the pitches] up. But, then again, listening to each start, too, to see where he is.”
Cole took the mound at 7:07 pm to cheers after a video montage was played on the big screen highlighting his debut. “The Return of Gerrit Cole” was long-awaited. It began with a couple of bumps.
The Orioles inflicted most of their damage against Cole in the first inning. Gunnar Henderson led the game off with a one-hopper that bounced off second baseman Gleyber Torres‘ glove into right field and was ruled a double. Two batters later, Ryan O’Hearn, facing an 0-2, slashed a slider for a two-out, RBI ground-rule double.
Cole quickly regrouped. He needed just seven pitches to retire the side in the second inning. He issued a one-out walk to Henderson in the third. Henderson stole second base on the next pitch but was stranded there as Cole recorded his first three strikeouts of the season in the inning.
Cole retired the side in order with two strikeouts in the fourth frame on 16 pitches. He took the mound for the fifth inning but was pulled for reliever Ron Marinaccio after surrendering a first-pitch single to Cedric Mullins. The crowd showered Cole with a standing ovation. Cole, visibly annoyed with the end of his debut, acknowledged the supporters with his glove twice.
Then he watched Marinaccio yield a two-run home run to Ramon Urias for the second of the two runs on his pitching line.
New Jersey Devils defenseman Dougie Hamilton will miss the remainder of the regular season and “possibly” the playoffs due to a lower-body injury, general manager Tom Fitzgerald said.
When pressed if Hamilton could return if the Devils reach the second round of the postseason, Fitzgerald wasn’t too optimistic on Wednesday.
“We’re not planning on it, how’s that?” Fitzgerald said during an appearance on the “Krackin’ Canuckleheads” podcast.
Hamilton has been sidelined since he was tangled up with Stars forward Mason Marchment in the first period of a 4-3 loss to Dallas on March 4.
Hamilton, 31, has 40 points (nine goals, 31 assists) in 63 games this season. He is competing in the fourth campaign of his seven-year, $63 million contract.
Hamilton has totaled 501 points (151 goals, 350 assists) in 834 career games with the Boston Bruins, Calgary Flames, Carolina Hurricanes and Devils.
Hamilton was selected by the Bruins with the ninth overall pick of the 2011 NHL draft.
Rafael Devers told reporters Thursday that he’s “good to do whatever” the Boston Red Sox want him to do, an indication that he’s willing to move away from third base and serve as the team’s designated hitter this season.
A switch of roles didn’t seem likely last month, when Devers balked at the idea at moving to DH in the wake of Boston signing Alex Bregman.
“Third base is my position,” Devers said then.
But the three-time All-Star said Thursday that he spoke with manager Alex Cora and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow a few weeks ago and told them “I’m good to do whatever they want me to do.
“I’m here to help,” he said through his interpreter, according to The Athletic. “I’ve already spoken with them about that and they know where I stand, but I’m just ready to play.
“I’m not going to share what we talked about here just because it would make me come off … those are private conversations. So I told them everything of my point of view, how I see things, and they know that.”
Devers has yet to appear in an official spring training game for Boston. It was supposed to happen Tuesday but got pushed back to this weekend. He battled soreness in both of his shoulders last season and spent the first couple of weeks of spring training trying to strengthen them ahead of the regular season.
He did play in an intrasquad game Thursday in Fort Myers, Florida, before he spoke with the media, and had a home run off new Red Sox starter Walker Buehler.
Asked if he expects to be ready for Opening Day against the Rangers on March 27 in Texas, Devers said: “I expect to be there.”
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