ARLINGTON, Texas — For six innings Monday night, Gerrit Cole looked like the ace the Yankees need him to be down the stretch and into October.
Then came another injury scare, though this time it was followed by an exhale as the Yankees seemingly dodged a bullet in an 8-4 win over the Rangers at Globe Life Field.
As he warmed up for the bottom of the seventh, Cole started experiencing cramping in his right calf during the follow-through of his delivery.
He tried a few things to get it to stop, to no avail, and after a quick conversation with a trainer and Aaron Boone, he walked off the mound in unceremonious fashion with the Yankees leading 7-1.
It wasn’t until the ninth inning that the fan base could breathe again when the Yankees announced that it was just cramping for Cole, who will be reassessed on Tuesday.
“I wasn’t super concerned,” Cole said. “I just didn’t think it was the right situation to keep trying to manipulate it out there. … I jogged out there, didn’t feel it. I don’t feel it walking or moving around or anything.”
The reigning AL Cy Young winner, who missed the first two-and-a-half months of the season with elbow nerve inflammation, had thrown six strong innings of one-run ball with nine strikeouts before leaving the game.
Cole has now allowed three runs or fewer in six straight starts, a stretch in which he has a 1.85 ERA, and he appears to be on track to make his next start this weekend against the Cubs.
“Obviously immediate concern, but looks like it was hopefully just that — some cramping,” Boone said.
Cole’s early exit overshadowed what was otherwise a strong night for the Yankees (80-58), who won for only the second time in their last six games to remain a half-game ahead of the Orioles for first place in the AL East.
A resurgent Gleyber Torres led the way with a three-hit, two-RBI night to go with a diving, backhanded stop on a one-hopper behind second base to end the game with the Rangers (65-73) threatening to come back.
Torres put the Yankees ahead 2-0 in the third inning with a two-run double smoked to the gap against Jack Leiter — a former Delbarton teammate of Anthony Volpe and the son of Al Leiter — before starting a five-run sixth inning with an infield single on a dribbler to third.
Torres has hit safely in 26 of his last 27 games, the last 16 of which have come as the leadoff hitter.
“It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,” said Torres, who struggled mightily for the first few months of the season. “I get an opportunity to play every day and do the right thing for the team. Do the little things, pass the baton. Especially this month, it’s not about numbers, it’s about the team. Just win the game.”
Aaron Judge, who had been in a 4-for-23 stretch, drove Torres home with an RBI double in the sixth that knocked Leiter out of the 3-1 game.
The Yankees then piled on against reliever Chase Anderson, with Jazz Chisholm Jr. roping an RBI single and Anthony Rizzo slicing a perfectly placed ground-rule double down the left-field line that made it 6-1.
“When we’re all clicking like that, it’s fun to watch,” said Giancarlo Stanton, who added his 25th homer of the year in the eighth inning to make the score 8-3 and make him the only active player with at least 10 seasons of 25 home runs.
Besides Cole, the Yankees appeared to avoid a few other injury scares.
Chisholm had one while chasing down a foul pop-up and running awkwardly into the netting, though he popped right back up.
Wells had another when he was hit by a 95 mph fastball on his right hand/wrist during the sixth-inning rally, though he also remained in the game.
So too did Alex Verdugo, who appeared to be pointing at his side after running out a groundout in the fifth inning.
“I was a little concerned about Austin there, but I thought he got some good swings off after that,” Boone said. “[We’ll] pay attention to that. Jazz was OK. We’ll see on Dugie. See what we got overnight and hopefully all of it’s just minor things.”
