SAN DIEGO — Back-to-back-to-back turned out not to be the ultimate backbreaker.
But the fourth home run that Gerrit Cole allowed on Sunday was.
Cole gave up three straight homers to begin his outing, and while the Yankees staged a late rally to account for those three runs, it still was not enough as they fell to the Padres 4-3 in the series finale at Petco Park.
The four solo shots off Cole, on a day when the lineup was stymied by former teammate Michael King, sank the Yankees and cost them a chance to pick up a game on the Rays with time running out to do so.
After wrapping up a 3-3 West Coast trip — including potentially their last series without Aaron Judge — the Yankees (81-62) flew home trailing the Rays by four games for the division with 19 games left, while the Red Sox crept within 2 ¹/₂ games of them for the top AL wild card.
“I think we got some work to do,” Cole said. “We’re within striking distance of our goals.”
King, in his second career start against the Yankees after he was the centerpiece of the trade return for Juan Soto, tossed six shutout innings. He gave the Yankees a chance to get back in it late, as he lost his command in the fifth inning and loaded the bases with two outs, but they were unable to take advantage as Cody Bellinger flew out to end the threat.
Then, after Cole gave up his fourth home run of the day to Luis Campusano to put the Padres (75-68) ahead 4-0 in the seventh inning, the Yankees mounted a comeback in the top of the eighth against lefty Adrian Morejon. It included an RBI double from Spencer Jones, his latest left-on-left success, and an infield single from pinch hitter Amed Rosario that turned into two more runs with an assist from Morejon’s throwing error, pulling the Yankees within 4-3.
But after José Caballero, pinch running for Rosario, was thrown out trying to steal second by Campusano — who threw out all four runners that tried to steal on him in the series — Jasson Domínguez flew out to squash the rally.
“They made a play on us, but we’re not going to stand over there,” manager Aaron Boone said. “We got to try to get into scoring position there.”
Mason Miller then slammed the door shut on the Yankees in the ninth.
In between the home runs that bookended his seven-inning outing, Cole settled in, though the damage was done.
“It obviously happened quick in the first inning, but I didn’t think we were out of it for a second, because Gerrit went out there and did his job for the rest of the game and pitched really well and gave us a chance,” Jones said. “We just didn’t come through.”
Fernando Tatis Jr. led off the bottom of the first by taking an outside curveball the other way, belting it into the right field seats for the 1-0 lead. Jake Cronenworth followed by going to the opposite field as well, slicing a 97 mph, middle-in fastball down the left field line and keeping it just fair and high enough to hit off the first story of the Western Metal Supply Co. Manny Machado then crushed a 97 mph fastball to dead center field, a 416-foot blast that put the Padres ahead 3-0 in the blink of an eye.
“They put really good swings on the ball,” said Cole, who came within a few feet of giving up a fourth straight homer to Ty France. “The curveball kind of squirted out to Tatis. Thought Machado took a great pitch out, unbelievable swing. And I thought Cronenworth took a pretty good 2-1 fastball and put a good swing on it.”
It was not the first time Cole had given up back-to-back-to-back home runs to lead off the first inning of a start. He also did it June 9, 2022, against the Twins, a game the Yankees ended up coming back to win.
They nearly pulled off the same feat Sunday before coming up short, in part because Cole gave up another home run to Campusano in the seventh — on a 95 mph fastball down the middle that the catcher crushed 433 feet — and because King pitched his way out of jams.
“Disappointing we couldn’t get to him,” Boone said. “We couldn’t get that big hit today to get back in the game in the middle of the game. I thought we had the right at-bats against him, we just couldn’t break through.”
