Giancarlo Stanton is progressing and “doing quite well,” according to manager Aaron Boone, who hinted but did not state that Stanton has reached a significant stage of his rehab.
Stanton, who jogged in the outfield Friday as he builds up following a pair of calf strains, has “started the introduction to some bases,” Boone said Saturday.
Running the bases is often the final hurdle to clear before a rehab assignment (or simply an activation, if Stanton holds form and skips time in the minor leagues). Stanton had been running the bases in June, when he was nearing a return from the original calf strain and suffered another.
Asked to clarify whether Stanton had run the bases, Boone reiterated that he “introed it in a light way [Friday].”
Boone has been consistently vague regarding developments concerning Stanton (and Aaron Judge) and did not want to shed further light on Stanton’s status.
“He’ll be there when we get him there,” Boone said before the 5-4 win over the Braves in The Bronx.
Stanton has been sidelined since April 24 for an injury that no one imagined would cost at least 3 ¹/₂ months.
Asked if Stanton is closer to returning in a week or in a month, Boone said, “I don’t know.”
“I’m not going to get in the predicting game of it,” Boone added of Stanton, who faced live pitching for the first time this week since suffering the second calf strain. “We expect him back, and I would say he’s doing quite well, but ‘at what percent [he is running],’ they’ll tell me when it’s time.”
Gerrit Cole (seven innings, two runs on six hits with no walks and nine strikeouts) was excellent and consistently around the zone, 60 of his 82 pitches going for strikes. For his uptick, he credited better fastball command.
In the only inning that he struggled, he also showed resilience. To begin the fifth, Mauricio Dubón (double), Mike Yastrzemski (double), Austin Riley (single) and Jim Jarvis (single) rapped off four consecutive hits that plated a pair of runs and gave the Braves a narrow and brief lead.
But with a pair of runners on base and the game perhaps in the balance, Cole used a biting slider to strike out Drake Baldwin, got Ronald Acuña Jr. to fly out and then needed just three pitches — the third a 98.8 mph fastball — to strike out Matt Olson, whom Cole has owned in his career. That strikeout was the 1,000th of Cole’s Yankees tenure.
“It was really cool to do it today,” Cole said of 1,000. “Today [being Old-Timers’ Day], plus the win, at home — it’s kind of how you draw it up, I guess.
“When I think about it, I just feel really blessed.”
Despite a lefty in Chris Sale on the mound for Atlanta and a righty in Grant Holmes expected to start Sunday, Boone started Austin Wells, who went 1-for-2 with a double, against the southpaw.
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“I like him with Gerrit,” Boone said of Wells, who entered having caught Cole 10 times this season, Cole sporting a 2.88 ERA in those games.
In the lone game Ali Sánchez caught Cole, Cole allowed five earned runs in 4 ¹/₃ innings.
In his first rehab start with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Carlos Rodón allowed three runs on three hits and two walks while striking out four in 2 ²/₃ innings. He threw 48 pitches (29 strikes).
The lefty, recovering from elbow inflammation, is expected to only need one or two outings in the minors before he is activated.
