Gerrit Cole shines in rehab start, but Syracuse wins in 10th

Gerrit Cole gave Scranton/Wilkes-Barre everything it could have asked for in a rehab start, then Syracuse turned PNC Field into its own stage with a four-run 10th inning and a 6-2 victory Saturday night in Moosic, Pennsylvania.

Cole’s first Triple-A outing after earlier rehab work in Double-A Somerset and High-A Hudson Valley was sharp from the start. He worked 5.1 innings, allowed one run on six hits, struck out six and walked one, and his fastball reportedly reached 99.6 mph in the third inning. He was efficient early, faced the minimum through the first two frames and used a mix of pitches to keep Syracuse from squaring him up for much of the night.

The RailRiders backed him with an early lead in the second inning when Ali Sánchez launched a two-run homer for a 2-0 advantage. For a stretch, it looked like Cole’s outing might be the night’s defining storyline, especially with the Yankees monitoring a return from the right-hander as he worked his way back from a long layoff.

That picture changed slowly, then all at once. Ji Hwan Bae singled in a run in the third to get Syracuse on the board, and Christian Arroyo tied it in the eighth. The Mets then took over in the 10th, when Nick Morabito singled home Kevin Parada and Arroyo added an RBI double. A wild pitch and another single stretched the inning into a four-run burst that blew the game open and left the final score far more lopsided than the first nine innings had suggested.

The loss was a reminder that even a strong rehab start can fade into the background when the late innings turn. Cole had entered the night with momentum from his previous rehab work, having walked just one batter in 8 2/3 innings through his first two starts and thrown 78 of 96 pitches for strikes. He also had thrown 60 pitches in his third rehab start with Somerset on April 29, another step in a progression aimed at a big-league return.

The Yankees have not set a minimum number of rehab appearances before activation, and Cole was viewed as unlikely to make his 2026 debut before late May. For Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, though, Saturday was a game that showed both sides of the equation: a marquee arm taking another step forward, and an affiliate that still had to survive the part of the night that matters most.