With bats providing cushion, Cole keeps building toward prime form

NEW YORK – Gerrit Cole paced the length of the Yankees’ dugout during the early innings of Tuesday night’s game against the White Sox, glove tucked near his belt as he wriggled his right arm, keeping it loose. The Yankees’ ace had the luxury of time to kill.

Spencer Jones, Ben Rice and Paul Goldschmidt all homered off Davis Martin to highlight the Bombers’ attack, giving Cole a hefty cushion over his six-inning effort in New York’s 12-2 victory in the Bronx.

“They’re putting a lot of pressure on the opponent with quality at-bats, up and down the lineup,” Cole said. “It’s dynamic. It can be deadly in a handful of different ways.”

José Caballero added a homer in the eighth off position player Luisangel Acuña as the division-leading Yankees won for the seventh time in eight games, improving to a season-high 17 games over .500 at 44-27.

The fireworks put the game out of reach early, and Cole made sure it stayed that way. Making his fifth start since returning from Tommy John surgery, the righty served up a first-inning homer to Andrew Benintendi on a pitch he intended to elevate more.

Cole shrugged it off quickly, retiring the next 13 batters. He didn’t pitch out of the stretch until Tristan Peters opened the sixth with a single.

“He was great. Vintage Cole right there,” catcher J.C. Escarra said. “He didn’t let that first-inning homer affect him. On the contrary, he was lights out right after that. It was a good one.”

Though Cole showed signs of fatigue in the sixth, he pinned the bases loaded with his 90th pitch, inducing a Braden Montgomery groundout. Overall, Cole allowed three hits, walking two while striking out six.

With 28 innings now under his belt, Cole said he’s not comparing his performance to his pre-injury form – rather, he sees each start as “a little bit of a blank canvas.”

“I’m just laying down some base layer paint, and we’ll see what kind of Bob Ross concoction comes at the end of the year,” Cole said.

Cole improved to 2-1 with a 2.57 ERA, having allowed two runs or fewer in four of his five starts. Yankees manager Aaron Boone said he isn’t surprised by Cole’s early success.

“I think he would tell you there’s still so much more work and growth to get him where he wants to be,” Boone said. “I feel like by and large, he’s been pretty darn good. I think he would tell you that there’s a lot of little nuanced areas where he can continue to get better.”

To circle back to Bob Ross, Cole surely didn’t mind seeing a few happy little trees added to the Yankees’ line score.

Martin had permitted just three homers over his first 78 1/3 innings entering Tuesday’s game. The Yankees proved a bad match for that stat, having entered the contest leading the Majors with 102 homers.

In the second inning, Jones reached the second deck in right field for his second homer, a rocket that tied the score. It was Jones’ first homer at Yankee Stadium; he later worked a bases-loaded walk.

“You can visualize what the Major Leagues are going to be like, but until you’re in there and see it, expectation and reality don’t always match up,” Jones said. “That first [call-up] was a lot of new information, a lot of new things.”

Boone complimented Jones’ plate appearances, noting, “He looked like he was real comfortable against a really good pitcher.”

Four more runs came around in the third inning, highlighted by Cody Bellinger’s two-run single with the bases loaded. Rice’s fourth-inning homer was his team-leading 20th. Goldschmidt added a two-run shot, his 10th.

“We just trusted that we were going to get some good pitches to hit,” Jones said. “Obviously, he’s got really good stuff. I think we just did a good job of laying off the pitches that he wanted to make.”

Even in a double-digit victory, Cole said he saw a few things he’d like to tweak for his upcoming turn – just as Boone predicted. The Yankees wouldn’t expect anything less from their resident artist.

But five starts in, Cole can appreciate the early outline.

“I’ve kept them in the ballgame every time,” Cole said. “So that feels pretty good.”