'Whatever it takes': Cole gets huge DP in 6th

NEW YORK -- Gerrit Cole pumped his right fist and screamed as he whirled off the mound at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday evening, an authentic exclamation mark stamped upon a final pitch that induced an inning-ending double play, setting the Yankees’ ace free from a hairy situation.

These are the challenges that the Bombers expect in a string of 13 consecutive games against clubs with winning records, especially all-important contests against divisional competition. Cole and the Yankees passed their first test, grinding out a 2-0 victory over the Rays to extend the club’s winning streak to five games.

“It’s going to be a lot of tough baseball,” Cole said. “But we’re up for the challenge. Whatever it takes.”

Wiping away an ugly start at Minnesota in which he allowed a career-high five home runs, Cole’s clean line of six scoreless innings and seven strikeouts does not encapsulate the drama of the sixth inning. Tampa Bay forced the right-hander to dig deep, requiring assistance on the field and off.

“That’s the good thing about Gerrit,” said catcher Jose Trevino. “You get him in that position, he’s not going to back down. He’s going to come at you.”

After Yandy Díaz opened the inning with a soft single to left field, Cole got Harold Ramirez to chop a grounder that the pitcher fielded on the grass between the mound and first base. Cole whipped a throw to second base that seemingly pulled Gleyber Torres off the bag, appearing to set up runners at first and second with none out.

“I received the ball and I’m thinking double play all the way,” Cole said.

Cole had already barked a PG-13 comment into space when manager Aaron Boone signaled for a review that no one in the Yankees infield believed had a chance. Yet Brett Weber, the club’s replay coordinator, spotted a freeze-frame in which Torres’ right foot appeared to hold the bag.

It was a sequence that hours later spurred Boone to spring from his chair in the press conference room, demonstrating on the podium as though he were playing second base: “I try to tell everyone this -- all those plays that you think he comes off, you don’t come off at first unless you dive. The throw takes you off. Even though it was kind of weird … unless you fall down or dive, you hold the bag.”

Boone would again mimic Torres’ movements in the basement tunnel a few minutes later, waving with mock frustration: “Ahh, you guys don’t get it.” But the replay official agreed with Boone’s physics lesson, sending a disbelieving Díaz back to the visiting dugout; Díaz later insisted that “a 5-year-old would have been able to see that I was safe.”

The Yankees universally lauded Weber’s eye, with Isiah Kiner-Falefa calling it “a big pick-me-up,” but the relief lasted only a few pitches. Manuel Margot dunked a soft single into center field, drawing Boone to the mound.

It was an appropriate time to visit; the next batter, Ji-Man Choi, has been a personal nemesis for Cole. Entering Tuesday and including the postseason, Choi was 10-for-25 (.400) lifetime against Cole, with three doubles and four home runs.

Yet Cole had struck out Choi in their first two showdowns, once swinging and once looking. Through gritted teeth, Cole told Boone not to take the ball.

“Choi’s a tough matchup there,” Boone said. “With two outs, I might have gone to Wandy [Peralta] in that spot. With one out, I wanted to see him out there. He certainly wanted it.”

The call nearly backfired. Choi chopped a grounder off the side of the mound that appeared destined for center field. Kiner-Falefa dived to smother the ball behind the second-base bag, preventing Ramirez from scoring; Cole pointed his glove at the shortstop in appreciation.

“If that’s not a ‘defensive run saved,’ I don’t really know what is,” Cole said.

Now the bases were loaded with one out, and Cole’s assignment was Randy Arozarena, the big-swinging outfielder who had singled his last time up. As it was all night, Cole’s mindset was to avoid slug, snapping a first-pitch slider low and out of the strike zone.

Arozarena chopped the ball to Kiner-Falefa at shortstop, sparking a 6-4-3 double play, a routine twin killing to end an inning that had been anything but.

“He’s Gerrit Cole for a reason,” Kiner-Falefa said. “He made big pitches when he needed to, and that’s what we expect out of him.”