ANAHEIM, Calif. — So much for just holding down the fort.
The Yankees rotation without Gerrit Cole is now on the offensive during a dominant stretch that has played a key role in the club’s recent surge.
Yankees starters have gone 14 straight games in which they have thrown at least five innings and allowed two or fewer runs, tying the MLB record since 1893, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Nestor Cortes will get the ball on Tuesday against the Angels and try to make it 15, which would surpass the 2022 Mets, 1968 Pirates and 1907 Phillies.
“It’s been nice, each guy’s been building on the last one,” pitching coach Matt Blake said Sunday before Clarke Schmidt took a shutout into the sixth inning in what became a 5-2 loss to the Padres. “I feel like they’ve got a nice rapport going as a group and they’re all committed to helping each other. The conversations are good. It just feels like they’ve gotten into a good rhythm and each one’s building off the last.”
The Yankees entered Monday’s off day with the second-lowest starter ERA in the majors at 2.72.
The only rotation that had been better at preventing runs was the Phillies (2.69), who were also the only team that had won more games than the Yankees.
But the group of Cortes, Luis Gil, Carlos Rodon, Marcus Stroman and Schmidt have taken their starts to another level of late, with 18 of their last 21 starts going for at least five innings and allowing two or fewer runs.
“It’s been really all year,” manager Aaron Boone said. “It’s like virtually every day they’ve given us an opportunity to win a game. But what we’ve seen over the last couple weeks and now this turn in the rotation, they’ve been remarkable. Ultimately it starts on the bump and starts with that starting pitcher. They’re the reason — it starts with them — why we’ve been off to this kind of start.”
During this 14-game stretch alone, the Yankees rotation has posted a 0.84 ERA with 84 strikeouts and 24 walks across 85 ⅔ innings.
In eight of those outings, the starter has not allowed an earned run. The Yankees are 11-3 during that span.
“I think we’re all just a bunch of starters who know we can be elite in this game,” Stroman said. “The flow of information, the pitching coaches and the staff, everything’s so dialed in here. I think we all feel really confident when we go out there each and every start.”
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Of course, it doesn’t hurt when the Yankees offense has been rolling the way it has lately, usually giving its pitchers an early lead to work with.
“Really, the stretch we’ve been on with those guys [the starters], we’ve just been riding their high,” Alex Verdugo said. “They’re out there dominating, getting us in the dugout to hit that much quicker.”
But what makes the run the starters are on even more impressive is that they are doing it without the reigning AL Cy Young winner throwing a pitch — though Cole has played a role in this as an extra pitching coach in the dugout, bullpen sessions and clubhouse.
Cole is making good progress in his return from the elbow nerve inflammation that shut him down in March, as he is expected to face hitters again this week (likely on Thursday) before potentially starting a rehab assignment on June 4. That puts him on track to return possibly by the end of June or beginning of July if all goes well.
In the meantime, the current five starters have put their heads down, stayed healthy and given the Yankees a chance to win on just about every night.
“It’s almost like they all kind of sensed that we’ve got to step up with Cole not there and they’ve all risen to the occasion,” Blake said. “I think they’re just every day putting one step forward and not worrying about when Cole is going to be back and what that even indicates for any of them. Just keep doing their job on a nightly basis throwing up zeroes an inning at a time.”