Yankees' Gerrit Cole again looks ready in final tuneup for Opening Day

It was yet one more time when Gerrit Cole looked regular season-ready.

And after a not-quite-as-dominant-as-before-but-still-impressive outing Friday night at the Stadium in an intrasquad game — one in which the Yankees experimented with pumping in crowd noise — the next time Cole takes the mound, it will be just that: the regular season. The Yankees are set to face the defending champion Nationals in Washington on Thursday night.

So does Cole feel ready to face batters in games that count?

“Yeah, absolutely,” he said with a smile after allowing two runs, four hits and no walks with seven strikeouts in 5 2⁄3 innings.

“I’m excited,” said Cole, who grew up a Yankees fan in California. “Nothing’s guaranteed in 2020, so I’ll take it one day at a time. Hopefully we get there Thursday] because we put a lot of hard work in and guys have been grinding through the summer, so I’m excited to start up for sure, excited to start my career here as well.”

Cole has seemed game-ready for a couple of weeks at least. He came out blazing even before camp officially began, with his fastball sitting at 95 to 99 mph on July 2 in a simulated game.

“He’s pretty close to game speed,” pitching coach Matt Blake said that day after watching Cole face Aaron Judge, Aaron Hicks and Luke Voit. “We’re in a game-ready velocity now. It’s just about fine-tuning it and sustaining it over longer pitch counts. So I think he feels good about where he is.”

Cole, coming off a 5 2⁄3-inning, 84-pitch intrasquad outing last Sunday in which he struck out nine, was on a similar pitch count Friday as he faced Nick Tropeano (West Islip, Stony Brook University), a non-roster invitee who also pitched well.

What has most impressed Gary Sanchez about Cole since he started working with him in February?

“What hasn’t?” Sanchez said through his interpreter. “Everything he does out there is impressive. The way he can control all of his pitches, it’s really amazing.”

Cole allowed a single by leadoff man Mike Tauchman after a nine-pitch plate appearance but got Gleyber Torres to fly out. Second baseman Tyler Wade made a nice over-the-shoulder catch on Mike Ford’s flare and turned it into a double play.

Cole coasted through a 1-2-3 second and struck out Chris Iannetta, Estevan Florial and Kyle Holder in the third. After Tauchman’s leadoff hit, he retired 10 straight before Ford’s homer to right in the fourth. Miguel Andujar made it back-to-back homers with a drive to right-center.

Though it was just an intrasquad game, Cole’s approach, which has continually stood out to teammates, mirrored what it will be for the regular season.

“The back-to-back homers were undesirable from my perspective; obviously, good for Fordy and good for Miguel,” Cole said, still a bit vexed by the homers. “Just kind of got into a position there where I was spraying some breaking balls and that just kind of became non-competitive and I got in some fastball situations where I had to challenge guys. And it was kind of a predictable count and they got their swings off.”

Next up, COVID-19 permitting, will be a start in Washington against the Nationals in front of no fans at Nationals Park.

“It’s going to be fun, it’s going to have fake crowd noise and it’s going to be 2020 coronavirus baseball,” Cole said with a slight laugh. “But we get to put the road jersey on for the first time, New York across the chest, so stoked about that. Stoked about playing in some high-stakes games with the boys. It’s been a while since we’ve been out there to do that, so just generally excited and looking forward to it.”

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.