ARLINGTON, Texas — New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole exited his start at Texas with a right calf cramp after throwing his warmup pitches in the seventh inning Monday night.
Before his last warmup pitch, Cole lifted his right leg and tried to stretch. He bent twice, threw the warmup, then hopped and signaled to the bench. Manager Aaron Boone and director of sports medicine Michael Shuck went to mound.
Cole, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, turns 34 on Sunday. The right-hander began this season on the 60-day injured list because of nerve irritation and edema in his throwing elbow during spring training and didn’t make his season debut until June 19.
Cole left with the Yankees leading 7-1 as they went on to an 8-4 victory that gave him his sixth win of the season. He struck out nine and allowed one run in his six innings in his first start of September after going 2-1 with a 1.93 ERA and 31 strikeouts over 28 innings in five August starts.
Luke Weaver took over, allowing a single to Josh Jung and a home run to Wyatt Langford.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.