For the first time since his return, Gerrit Cole looked human. For the first time since completing his comeback from Tommy John surgery and getting what manager Aaron Boone described as a “new elbow,” Cole surrendered a run — four of them — and was hurt by the long ball.
And against an Aaron Judge-less lineup, that was more than enough for the Guardians.
The Yankees lost to Cleveland 5-4 on Wednesday for their second consecutive loss with Judge sidelined as they awaited a final diagnosis on the bone bruise near his right rib that’s impacting his swing.
Cole, after opening his 2026 ledger with 12 ²/₃ shutout innings, allowed four runs across 5 ¹/₃ frames, with Cleveland’s three home runs accounting for most of the damage.
He still flashed his vintage, pre-surgery form, an encouraging sign for a banged-up Yankees team clinging to its remaining healthy stars. But their offense managed just five hits — two of those solo homers — and didn’t come close to cobbling together nearly enough production with Judge’s status looming.
Even after eight innings of inconsistency, the Yankees had a chance in the ninth while trailing by two runs. Paul Goldschmidt doubled to lead off the inning and scored on Cody Bellinger’s deep sacrifice fly to pull them within a run. Jazz Chisholm Jr. struck out and José Caballero flew out, though, to end the comeback attempt.
Cole breezed through the first inning with just eight pitches, but Kyle Manzardo sent a ball over the right-field fence to lead off the second and give the Guardians a 1-0 lead.
Rhys Hoskins crushed a slider over the left-field fence two frames later, giving Cleveland the lead back again after Chisholm evened the game with a solo homer of his own. And to lead off the fifth, José Ramírez added the Guardians’ third homer of the night.
Outside of those swings, Cole mostly gave the Yankees a chance to win. He didn’t generate the same swing-and-miss pitches that he did in his last outing, when he struck out 10 batters, but he was still mostly efficient.
Cole’s offense left him little margin for error, though.
As the Yankees braced for the final diagnosis on Judge, a process that dragged from imaging Monday all the way through a specialist examining him Wednesday, the Yankees issued a reminder of just how much they need their superstar.
Chisholm’s homer was a promising sign from the infielder who has struggled during a contract year, and Caballero — starting in right field in place of Judge for just the second time this season after handing the shortstop job back to Anthony Volpe — kept making a case to remain in the Yankees lineup with a solo homer off Gavin Williams and a single in the second.
But only Ben Rice managed an extra-base hit outside of that.
There were brutal swings on off-speed pitches. There were harmless grounders and fly outs that strung together and resulted in the Yankees never being able to threaten in the later innings, even once they got to the Cleveland bullpen.
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The Guardians added a run in the eighth inning when Hoskins singled off Paul Blackburn, who inherited a pair of runners as Tim Hill’s struggles continued.
Hill has allowed 10 runs — with nine earned — across his past 4 ²/₃ innings, spiraling from a constant into a concerning issue.
And when the Yankees needed a response in the eighth, Volpe, Trent Grisham and Rice all flew out against Hunter Gaddis.
If the Yankees needed another reminder of just how much they needed Judge, and just how much they might struggle without him, that captured it perfectly.
