Cole strikes out 11 as Yankees beat A's
OAKLAND -- Gerrit Cole struck out 11 on the way to his first win since July 17, Aaron Judge hit a three-run homer in the fifth for No. 49 on the season and the Yankees' 200th, and New York beat the Oakland Athletics 3-2 on Friday night.
Cole (10-6) allowed one run on three hits over 7 1/3 innings to snap a six-start winless stretch in which he'd gone 0-4 since beating Boston last month. He reached double-digit wins for the eighth time in his career.
Cole notched his seventh start of the season with 10 or more strikeouts. He has 1,335 strikeouts since 2017, the most in the majors during that span.
Jonah Bride connected for his first career homer in the seventh against Cole. After Jonathan Loáisiga recorded the final two outs of the eighth, Wandy Peralta gave up an RBI single to pinch-hitter Dermis García but finished the 2-hour, 50-minute game for his third save.
New York faced a former Yankee for the second straight game. Left-hander JP Sears (5-1) faced his former team for the first time since joining Oakland in the Frankie Montas-Lou Trivino trade at the deadline.
Sears allowed the three runs on Judge's homer and eight hits over six innings with three strikeouts and four walks. Oakland's loss came one night after allowing 20 hits in a 13-4 defeat, the most allowed by the A's since Cleveland had 20 on July 1, 2018.
Judge, supported in the stands by friends from his church in Stockton, walked in his other three plate appearances — once intentionally. He is three homers shy of matching his career-best mark of 52 set during his AL Rookie of the Year season in 2017.
The Yankees have won all five matchups in the season series so far with Oakland, which has dropped four of its last five games overall.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Yankees: OF Harrison Bader, on the 60-day injured list with plantar fasciitis in his right foot, has begun swinging a bat and could begin his running progression this weekend. He won't be on the Yankees' West Coast swing that includes a series in Anaheim early next week but could meet the club in Tampa, Florida, next Friday and still rehab at their facility there. ... 1B DJ LeMahieu played again after a day off and will be closely monitored by the training staff the rest of the way as he deals with inflammation in his right big toe. Treatment has been helping. "It's going to be something that we pay attention to the rest of the year," manager Aaron Boone said. ... All-Star LHP Nestor Cortes continues to work on flat ground after he went on the 15-day injured list Thursday with a strained left groin. "The next big challenge will be getting off the mound," Boone said.
A's: OF Skye Bolt went on the 10-day injured list with a right knee injury a day after being hit by a pitch from Yankees rookie Greg Weissert in a wild major league debut for the reliever. Bolt threw down his bat in frustration. He felt like his kneecap slid, according to athletic trainer Nick Paparesta. "We don't believe there is a lot of damage within the knee," Paparesta said. "We felt it would be best to give this an opportunity for it to heal properly, get his full function and mobility back with his strength instead of kind of trying to kind of play through this a little bit and injure other things and compensate for problems that may arise." ... RHP Brent Honeywell threw 45 pitches over two innings Thursday for Triple-A Las Vegas and his next step is expected to be pitching back-to-back days out of the bullpen next week. He was shut down during spring training in late March with a stress reaction in his pitching elbow.
UP NEXT
RHP Domingo Germán (2-2, 3.89 ERA) starts Saturday having allowed three or fewer runs in his last six outings, the second longest such streak of his career. The A's counter with RHP Adam Oller (2-6, 6.41) as he looks to bounce back from a loss to the Marlins. Oller is 0-0 with a 3.86 ERA in two career appearances vs. New York.
