Colon flashes his pre-injury form

Bartolo Colon, an effective advertisement for stem cell research if not covering first base, reverted to his surprisingly dominant early-season form Sunday by giving the Yankees a solid start before they nearly frittered away their 7-5 victory over the Oakland Athletics.

Signed in January as a free agent after he did not pitch in 2010, Colon, 38, has given the Yankees more than they could have hoped for after a controversial offseason procedure involving redirecting his own stem cells into his injured shoulder and elbow.

But heading into Sunday, he had lost three consecutive starts -- allowing 21 hits, eight walks and 16 runs (nine earned) in 122/3 innings -- and a hamstring injury suffered June 11 while he ran to cover first base seemed to hint that he might be fading. Before Sunday, he hadn't earned a victory after July 5 in any season since 2005, when he went 21-8 and won the American League Cy Young Award.

But against Oakland, Colon allowed eight hits in seven innings. Three of those were back-to-back-to-back to produce two runs in the second. But mostly he was in full control, with four strikeouts and one walk.

"Barty looked good again today," Joe Girardi said. "The two runs he gave up, the first couple of balls weren't hit really hard. I thought he threw the ball well today. He gave us distance."

That Colon, who is 7-6 with a 3.29 ERA, might face diminishing returns only raised the volume on the chattering class convinced that the Yankees have only one top-line starter in CC Sabathia. With the non-waivers trade deadline looming, Girardi was asked Sunday what need he might want to fill -- hint, hint: a starting pitcher?

"I don't get too caught up in publicly saying what I think we need and don't need," he said, "because you have to win with the guys that are in the room, and that's what we've been doing. My job is to manage the 25 guys I've got at that time, and that's what I worry about."

Furthermore, Colon's recent struggles, Girardi said, "are what happens to a pitcher during the course of a season. Half your starts, you're going to have your ace stuff, and half the time you may not. You have to figure out a way to get through things.

"I think the rest helped him. You don't ever want to see anyone go through a DL stint, but that probably, in the long run, is going to help him. I think he had some doubts in his head" about reinjuring his leg.

Happy? Colon was asked. "I always try to be happy," he said. "I think this was like my earlier outings."