After Gerrit Cole’s first three starts of the season went awry, the Yankees switched up his batterymate for the fourth.
Jose Trevino caught Cole for the first time in Sunday’s 10-2 win over the Guardians in The Bronx, with Kyle Higashioka watching from the bench.
Higashioka has been Cole’s trusted catcher for most of the right-hander’s Yankees tenure. Cole threw to Gary Sanchez for two starts last July when Higashioka was on the COVID injured list, but before that, the last time Cole had started with someone other than Higashioka behind the plate was on Opening Day of 2021.
“It was seamless,” Cole said after throwing 6 ²/₃ scoreless innings. “We got kind of a two-headed monster back there right now. That fluidity throughout the entire series, both with Higgy and Jose just communicating, there was a lot of continuity on what we wanted to do with the hitters. Everybody was in a good spot based on our preparation.”
Aaron Boone said he had told Cole that it was something he was thinking of doing and the ace didn’t have an issue with it.
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“Just something I want to have the ability to do,” the manager said. “I feel great about both those guys and their abilities behind the plate. Just felt like today was the day to do that.”
Boone on Friday had described Higashioka and Trevino as a catching “tandem,” with both of them being defense-first backstops. But after Higashioka started nine of the first 12 games of the season, Trevino’s start on Sunday was his third in the last four games.
“Going over scouting reports [with Cole] before the game and going over what our plan was, it was pretty similar from the start,” Trevino said. “So being on the same page throughout the game was pretty good.”
Guardians star third baseman Jose Ramirez arrived in The Bronx on fire with a 12-game hitting streak and batting .426 with a 1.302 OPS and 10 extra-base hits. But the Yankees held him to just 1-for-11 with a walk in the series, with his only hit coming on a harmless single off Cole on Sunday.
Gleyber Torres, who was the hero in Saturday’s walk-off win with a pinch-hit single, went 2-for-3 with a double and a walk on Sunday. The second baseman, who had been losing playing time of late, is now 5-for-9 over his last four games after going hitless in five straight games before that.
Giancarlo Stanton was out of the Yankees’ lineup Sunday. After a hot start to the season, he was hitting just 3-for-29 with a double, one walk and 12 strikeouts in his past seven games.
Former Yankees first baseman Luke Voit, whose inability to stay healthy played a key role in him getting traded out of The Bronx this spring, landed on the Padres’ injured list Sunday with a biceps tendon injury.