Gerrit Cole and Shane Bieber dueled past sundown on Saturday, achieving the expectations that come when two of the best starters in the Majors meet on the same mound. They combined for 20 strikeouts and only three runs allowed in the Yankees’ 2-1 win at Progressive Field.

In an ace vs. ace battle -- Cole, a three-time All-Star and perennial Cy Young contender; Bieber, the reigning American League Cy Young Award and Triple Crown winner -- Cole was better and stronger. His fastball sizzled into triple digits. His changeup fell away from flailing bats. The Yankees’ stoic right-hander finished with 11 strikeouts and no walks in seven innings of one-run ball.

• Box score

“I thought [Cole] was terrific in a game where we needed him to be really, really good, because we were up against a really good one as well,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.

Before the game, fellow New York starter (and Cole’s former Pirates teammate) Jameson Taillon pondered that Cole, in facing Bieber, might want to turn Saturday into a “statement game” with his performance. Then again, that type of intensity isn’t new for him.

“Gerrit’s always fiery,” Taillon said. “Like we could be playing a Spring Training game against a high school team and Gerrit’s going to be ready and he’s going to be fired up.”

As fired up as he might be on the inside, Cole rarely shows it, opting instead for a business-as-usual demeanor as he mows down the opposition.

Cole has now struck out at least seven batters in 14 consecutive starts, a franchise record. He also raised his season punchout total to 50, the most by a Yankees pitcher through five starts.

Ever the perfectionist, Cole bemoaned the number of times Cleveland batters worked him into deep counts, which is something he said he’d “like to clean up, sooner rather than later.” But of the seven times Cole faced a three-ball count, only one batter reached safely. And he struck out four of those batters.

“I think we just made some good pitches when we had to,” Cole said.

Cole’s lone blemish came in the fourth inning, when he allowed a pair of hits in succession. The first was a near-homer by José Ramírez, who lifted a curveball to right. Aaron Judge knocked the ball down with his glove at the top of the wall, but he couldn’t make the grab, allowing Ramirez to leg out a triple. On the next pitch, Eddie Rosario inside-outed another breaking pitch to left field for an RBI single, giving Cleveland a 1-0 lead.

Other than that, Cole was practically perfect. He allowed one other baserunner (a one-out double by Roberto Pérez in the third) and struck out seven of Cleveland’s hitters at least once. The collection of lengthy at-bats meant Cole was fighting his own pitch count at times, but he needed only 38 pitches over his final three innings, retiring all nine batters.

Against Bieber, the Yankees’ offense kept up its homer-happy ways. They’ve muscled seven home runs in three games this series, after hitting only six in their previous seven games. Aaron Hicks and Rougned Odor each hit a solo homer in the fifth, accounting for all of New York’s run production.

Both homers were special in their own right. For the switch-hitting Hicks, he earned his first extra-base hit from the left side of the plate this season (he entered Saturday slashing .100/.234/.100 in 47 plate appearances as a lefty). For Odor, the go-ahead solo blast was his fourth hit that either tied the game or put the Yankees ahead (out of seven total hits) since joining the team.

The homers were also special in that they helped lift the Yankees to a three-game win streak for the first time in 2021. Cole did most of the heavy lifting, but contributions are starting to seep in from all over the lineup.

“I think they’re building on their confidence and starting to expect to walk in here and expect things to happen,” Boone said. “To win a really well-pitched, low-scoring game tonight is another good one to put in the win column.”