TAMPA — The stats were ugly, but they don’t matter. What matters is how Yankees ace Gerrit Cole felt after his first appearance of spring training. That one was easy.
Cold said he felt good and that he didn’t stress over a tough 28-pitch first inning in Monday’s 5-4 win over the Detroit Tigers at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Cole gave up a run on three hits and a walk, striking out one.
“You want to come out of here healthy and having thrown all your pitches,” Cole said. “There’s always something to work on every time you take the mound. We’ll look to improve on where we started from today. In terms of the shapes of the pitches, the velocity relative to the effort, it was a pretty good start from that standpoint.”
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Manager Aaron Boone said Cole’s stuff was good but his location was just off, which is to be expected early in the…
