New catcher, same Gerrit Cole.

Things certainly didn’t look different for Cole on Saturday afternoon, though the Yankees’ ace was throwing to Ben Rortvedt instead of Jose Trevino.

“I thought it was really fun working with Ben,” Cole said after the Yankees beat the Royals, 5-2, at the Stadium to clinch their first series victory since the end of June. “We made a lot of good pitches. We worked out of a jam in the fifth, kept the damage low.”

The right-hander continued his season-long dominance, even with a new batterymate. He struck out 10, while allowing five hits and two earned runs over 6 ¹/₃ strong innings.

Trevino, out for the season after right wrist surgery, had developed a strong rapport with Cole.

The six-time All-Star pitcher posted a 2.57 ERA in 41 games working with Trevino over the past two seasons, including 18 of his first 20 starts this year.

Cole’s ERA with Kyle Higashioka catching him has been more than a full run higher (3.67) over 41 games during his pinstriped tenure.

Trevino prepped Rortvedt (who was acquired from the Twins after the 2021 season) for the start on Friday after he was called up from Triple-A. Trevino helped Cole and Rortvedt throughout the game on Saturday.

“Fortunately, I’ve been able to work with [Rortvedt] in the spring. He’s a high aptitude player and a good player,” Cole said after the Yankees improved to 15-6 in his 21 starts this season. “Trevy was very much involved today. He helped Ben quite a bit and really for the most part we were pretty seamless. He called a great game and did a nice job.”

Cole retired the first six Royals he faced before he allowed a home run to Nick Pratto leading off the third inning.

Kansas City had first and third with nobody out in the fifth, but Cole limited the damage to just one run.

Cole was lifted with one out in the seventh inning, ending a ninth consecutive start in which he had allowed three earned runs or fewer.

“Just keep trying to make my pitches. Sometimes, there were some counts where we fell behind [trying to] execute pitches to the edge and anticipating a swing and then finding safe spots in the zone,” Cole said. “Other times, kind of living on the edge and using the fact that you’re just making your pitches and at some point the batter is going to have to make a move on a pitch to gain the advantage back.”