The morning after his first rehab start , Gerrit Cole was feeling like he hoped he would.
The Yankees ace, just over 13 months removed from undergoing Tommy John surgery, was feeling “good” and experiencing just the normal soreness to be expected from throwing 44 pitches across 4 ¹/₃ innings on Friday night with Double-A Somerset.
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“Pretty standard,” Cole said Saturday morning at Yankee Stadium before a 13-4 win over the Royals .
Friday marked another significant step in Cole’s long road back to the big leagues, though he will still have several more rehab starts before he might be in a position to rejoin the Yankees in mid-to-late May.
The Yankees will continue to be deliberate in building up Cole’s workload, with his next start likely to come with High-A Hudson Valley or Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, who are both home next week.
“I would say building up is a pretty big physical box,” Cole said. “We’re in an environment now where — it’s nice to work on things, but at the end, you have to get outs. There might be some situations where I get stressed — long innings, short innings, long innings on the bench, those things like that, just trying to handle them when they come your way.
“Then continue to work out the recovery in between. Finding what’s working, what’s helping and get in a good pattern and rhythm, lay some baseline down for what’s to come next. Just staying curious with what comes my way and how to best handle that.”
Carlos Rodón , meanwhile, threw another simulated game Saturday in which he was expected to throw between 55-60 pitches. If he comes out of it well, the left-hander could begin a rehab assignment next week.
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Rodón, whose comeback from elbow surgery was delayed slightly by a hamstring issue, is still likely to return before Cole.
“Probably,” manager Aaron Boone said. “I would expect that, but we’re still at least a few weeks away from Carlos potentially.”
Giancarlo Stanton , who has struck out three times in three of his last five games and was the only Yankee not to reach base Saturday, is expected to be out of the lineup Sunday. The veteran DH is in the midst of a 1-for-21 skid and will get a double day off combined with Monday’s team off day entering a series against the Red Sox.
“Feel like he’s still very much a threat right now in there,” Boone said. “Has missed probably a couple pitches where he’s been close and on time and he fouled them off or swung through a pitch. I feel like they’ve executed pretty well against him too. Just one of those flows in a week of the season where they make some pitches against him.”
Paul Goldschmidt was on the bench against a lefty starter Saturday as the red-hot Ben Rice got the nod at first base. Goldschmidt will start on Sunday against lefty Cole Ragans , with Rice at DH, and against at least one of the two lefties the Yankees are scheduled to face against the Red Sox.
The Yankees have won each of their last nine regular-season games against the Royals.
