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USATSI

NEW YORK -- Reigning AL Cy Young winner and Yankees ace Gerrit Cole will make his second minor league rehab start this Sunday with New York's Double-A affiliate, the Somerset Patriots, manager Aaron Boone announced Friday. Cole threw 3 1/3 innings in his first rehab start Tuesday. He threw 45 pitches in that game and figures to bump that up to 60 or so pitches Sunday.

"Definitely close," Cole said following Tuesday's rehab start. "I'm not sure how many more [rehab starts] we'll need, but definitely closer rather than farther away. It should be right around the corner here."

The Yankees have not put a number on how many rehab starts Cole will make, though they are adamant they will not rush him back or change his rehab schedule. Cole went down with nerve inflammation in his elbow in spring training and has been going through a spring training-like buildup since being cleared to throw a few weeks ago.

New York's rotation without Cole has been exceptional. The Yankees are allowing only 3.17 runs per game, the fewest in baseball by 0.26 runs, and their starters rank second with a 2.62 ERA. Luis Gil, who replaced Cole in the rotation, has a 1.82 ERA in 12 starts and was named the AL's Pitcher and Rookie of the Month for May.

The Yankees lost Clarke Schmidt to a lat strain last week and he is expected to miss two months, if not more. Journeyman Cody Poteet was summoned to replace Schmidt and has a 2.45 ERA in two starts. Poteet will face Yoshinobu Yamamoto when the Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers begin their series at Yankee Stadium on Friday.

Cole, 33, led the American League in innings (209), ERA (2.63), ERA+ (165), WHIP (0.98), and WAR (7.4) en route to winning the Cy Young unanimously in 2023. It was his first career Cy Young, and his five previous top-five finishes in the voting were the most ever for a pitcher at the time of his first Cy Young win.

The Yankees came into Friday with MLB's best record (45-19) and run differential (plus-118).