TAMPA — The next time Gerrit Cole pitches, he will likely be making his spring debut.
But on Sunday, before the Yankees hosted the Tigers, Cole was on a backfield facing Aaron Judge and other teammates to get his work in across three innings of live batting practice while building his pitch count up to 45.
And, as he did on Friday during his bullpen session, Cole had one of his childhood heroes watching from behind the mound, Roger Clemens, who is in camp as a guest instructor.
“It was awesome,” Cole said Sunday. “It’s really great. Álex [Rodríguez] was in the house the other day, too. It’s good vibes.
“[Clemens] had some advice after the pen the other day on some of the mechanics, some of the fine-tuning. But so far he really liked the foundation. It’s gotta get better, but it’s in a good spot.”
Cole said he planned to talk to Clemens at some point about how he was able to pitch into his 40s, though the Yankees ace is guessing it had a lot to do with his good mechanics and fluid movements.
For now, Cole is focused on getting ready for his age-34 season, and Sunday’s live session represented the latest step in that pursuit.
“Felt good,” Cole said. “It was a good day’s work, hit the pitch count, threw some good velocity up there, threw a lot of strikes.”
Cole typically throws at least four live batting practices before getting into game action, and Sunday marked his fourth.
Last year, he only got into one game before being sidelined with elbow nerve irritation, but the early signs this spring in how he is bouncing back between outings has been encouraging.
“Really held his stuff throughout, which I think he wanted to do, and not necessarily having to reach for it,” manager Aaron Boone said. “He was routinely [9]4, [9]5 and [9]6 with the heater, good profile to it. Secondary was sharp.”
Cole did give up some loud contact to Judge, who he said looked “hitterish” while swinging away early and often.
But the former Cy Young indicated he relishes the challenge of facing the two-time MVP.
“I’ve done this for a long time, I’ve seen my fair share of line drives and gotten my fair share of line drives, so there’s always that uncertainty with guys who can just really hit the ball so hard,” Cole said with a laugh. “So that’s not comfortable. But it’s fun to compete against him and then to be able to talk about him afterwards, that’s special.”
