Gerrit Cole dazzles in return, but Yankees fall to Rays

Gerrit Cole looked every bit like a frontline starter again, and the Yankees still walked off the field with a loss. In his first major league appearance in 569 days, Cole threw six shutout innings against the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium, only to watch New York fall 4-2 after a four-run eighth inning unraveled the night.

The right-hander was back after elbow ligament reconstruction surgery in March 2025, and the outing was his first counted major league game since Game 5 of the 2024 World Series on Oct. 30, 2024. Cole gave up two hits and three walks, struck out two and threw 50 of 72 pitches for strikes. His fastball averaged 96.1 mph and reached 98.6 mph, a strong showing for a pitcher who also worked in a new over-the-head hand movement in his windup during rehab.

New York gave Cole an early lead when Austin Wells homered in the fifth inning for a 1-0 advantage. Cole also helped himself in the first, picking off Chandler Simpson to escape an early threat, and Aaron Judge made a key catch in the second to preserve the shutout. For six innings, the Yankees had the look of a team with its ace back in place and a rotation piece capable of changing the season’s trajectory.

The game turned in the eighth when José Caballero’s error opened the door for Tampa Bay’s rally. The Rays, one of the hottest teams in baseball, turned that break into four runs and continued a surge that has brought them 16 wins in 19 games. The result underscored how quickly a game can swing in the American League East, where one defensive lapse can erase six scoreless innings from a former Cy Young winner.

The loss also fit a wider slide for New York. Aaron Boone said the Yankees had lost 10 of 14 and trailed Tampa Bay by 5 1/2 games, a gap that makes Cole’s return more important and more complicated at the same time. Cole said the outing felt like “almost like a second debut,” and he looked ahead to his next start against Kansas City. Boone said Cole should get even better and still has more swing-and-miss stuff to show. For the Yankees, that is the promise, and the problem: one ace can steady the front of the rotation, but it cannot fix everything behind him.