Gerrit Cole dominant as Yankees beat Mariners to end 4-game skid

The Yankees’ offense didn’t exactly experience some kind of breakthrough Tuesday night.

But the way Gerrit Cole was throwing, it didn’t matter.

The ace righthander, backed by a two-run homer from Billy McKinney and three hits from the horribly slumping Anthony Rizzo, throttled the Mariners over 7 1⁄3 dominant innings in the Yankees’ 3-1 victory in front of 43,130 at the Stadium.

“He just commanded the baseball how he wanted to,” Aaron Boone said.

The victory ended a four-game losing streak for the Yankees (40-33), whose offense has been non-existant during Aaron Judge’s absence.

Cole allowed one run, four hits and a walk in improving to 8-1 with a 2.64 ERA. Cole, who struck out eight in what was his longest outing since a complete-game 2-0 victory over the Twins April 16, improved to 4-0 with a 1.87 ERA following a Yankees loss (the Yankees are 7-0 overall in games started by Cole after a loss).

Cole provided some late theater to his outing. Annoyed by Jose Caballero stepping out of the box during a seventh-inning at-bat, Cole fired a fastball some 15-20 feet high into the backstop. Cole then struck the second baseman out swinging at a 98-mph fastball.

On his way back to the dugout, Cole stared down Caballero, then gave a finger wave toward Mariners manager Scott Servais, whom the pitcher said wagged his finger at him first. Yankees bench coach Carlos Mendoza, typically mild-mannered, could be seen in the background screaming in the direction of the visiting dugout.

“Their manager had some choice words for me coming off the field and he was wagging his finger at me, so I wagged my finger at him,” Cole said. “That’s the first time an opposing manager’s ever wagged their finger at me.”

Of the high fastball to the backstop, Cole said, completely deadpan: “Sometimes a high fastball can be a really effective pitch. Gotta change eye levels.”

Rizzo, who entered in a 4-for-48 slide but went 3-for-4, said of the back-and-forth: “I mean, anytime any altercation happens, I think you come together as a group. I don’t think there will be anything of it but it’s good entertainment.”

Clay Holmes took over for Cole with one out in the eighth and got five outs for his ninth save in 11 chances.

The Mariners (35-36) in many ways were the perfect opponent for the struggling Yankees, who came in having scored 39 runs in the 12 previous games without Judge. Though not to the degree of the Twins, the Mariners typically roll over at the sight of the Yankees (home and away), having lost 10 of their previous 12 series to them and 13 of their last 16.

Rizzo’s RBI double in the first brought in Gleyber Torres to give Cole an early lead. Harrison Bader, back after missing 16 games with a right hamstring strain, singled leading off the second, stole second and scored on McKinney’s home run that made it 3-0.

“It definitely feels nice,” Rizzo said of perhaps breaking out of his skid. “It’s just the grind of the year. You just have to go through it, you go through it every year. It’s about limiting it as much as you can and just knowing it’s a long year and you have to keep going.”

The Yankees did all of their damage against righthander George Kirby, who handcuffed them over eight scoreless innings in a 1-0 victory (in 10 innings) May 31 in Seattle. Kirby, a native of Rye (he grew up a Yankees fan), allowed three runs and eight hits over seven innings. He struck out four.

Bader made an immediate impact in his first game back. The centerfielder led off the second with a single and, with McKinney at the plate, stole second. McKinney teed off on a full-count, 96-mph sinker and hammered it 432 feet into the bleachers in right-center to make it 3-0. McKinney improved to 11-for-36 (.306) in 11 games, with six of those being extra-base hits, including two homers.

The three runs were more than enough for Cole, who finally gave up a run in the sixth on Jarred Kelenic’s RBI double.

“It wasn’t easy,” Cole said. “They put some balls in play and hit some balls hard that went our way and they fought us all night. The best thing we did was stay in command of the strike zone, move the fastball around and throw a lot of quality pitches.”