Cole reaches 99.6 mph in 6th rehab start, likely has one more minor outing before rejoining Yanks
MOOSIC, Pa. (AP) — Gerrit Cole reached 99. 6 mph with his four-seam fastball, throwing 86 pitches over 5 1/3 innings for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre against the Syracuse Mets on Saturday night in likely his next-to-last minor league injury rehabilitation start before rejoining the New York Yankees.
Returning from reconstructive elbow surgery on March 11 last year , Cole threw 56 pitches for strikes and averaged 97 mph with his fastball. He allowed one run and six hits with six strikeouts and one walk his sixth minor league start, his first at Triple-A after two for High-A Hudson Valley and three for Double-A Somerset. He was pulled with an 0-2 count to Eric Wagaman and relieved by Yerry De Los Santos with a 2-1 lead.
Cole has a 4. 71 ERA over 28 2/3 innings, allowing 28 hits while striking out 28 and walking three. His pitch count was up from 77 in his previous outing.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Friday that Cole probably will make one more minor league start after this weekend. Jackson Cluff singled on a first-pitch slider with one out in the third to become the Mets' first runner, and Kevin Parada blooped an opposite-field single to right on a 2-0 slider. Ji Hwan Bae hit a two-out grounder to the right side and reached on an infield single as first baseman Ernesto Martinez Jr.
was slow with the toss. Cluff kept on running and scored just ahead of Cole's throw to the plate. Cole gave up three straight hits in the fourth.