Ninety-six days after making his last start for the Yankees, Corey Kluber was finally back on the mound Monday night in his first appearance since suffering a shoulder injury back in May.
After pitching just 36.2 innings over the previous two seasons, Kluber was able to put his injury behind him and get back on the mound after his season felt in question when he left his start early back on May 25. But instead of another season-ending injury, he was able to make his return to take on the Angels.
“It felt good to get back out there,” Kluber said. “I was excited. It was a long process to get to this point, to have all that coming in and now just be able to worry about going out and contributing to the team is nice.”
The veteran righty looked like his early-season self in the opening innings, starting with three shutout frames before faltering in the fourth. He opened the game with a pair of strikeouts, including one against Shohei Ohtani, and struck him out again to start the bottom of the fourth before allowing his first hit of the night, a single to Phil Gosselin that started a sudden unraveling for Kluber.
Another single, a walk, and a grand slam by Jack Mayfield turned Kluber’s outing on its head, but most importantly, he felt strong physically after departing with 68 pitches.
“The final line doesn’t look very good, but breaking it down, I think there was a lot of good to take out of tonight,” Kluber said. “I feel like I executed pretty well for the most part. Obviously the home run wasn’t a very good pitch, but the base hits leading up to it…a lot of those were pretty good pitches, not a lot of hard contact, but I obviously made a bad pitch in a big spot that ultimately accounted for four runs.
“I try to judge where I’m at based on that more so than results. I think results can sometimes skew your view of how you were out there, either good or bad. But for the most part, I feel like I executed pretty well for most of the night. I think Gary [Sanchez] and I did a good job of keeping them off balanced. There’s just one pitch I wish I could have back.”
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Kluber’s start fell off sharply in the fourth, but he doesn’t attribute that to his shoulder, rust, or anything physically.
“I didn’t feel fatigued out there,” Kluber said. “You get in the game and adrenaline kicks in and all that kind of stuff, especially being the first one back, I didn’t feel fatigued. I’m not gonna use that as an excuse.”
Kluber will now turn his attention to his next outing, as he looks to get back in a rhythm that saw him throw a no-hitter in his last complete outing before his injury, and he held a strong 3.04 ERA before he landed on the IL. He doesn’t have much concern about how he will bounce back from his first start back, and trusts he will be ready to get back on the mound in five days and bring more stability to what has already been a strong rotation for the Yankees.
“I think I’ll keep an eye on things and make sure I stay in a good spot physically, but as far as wondering how I’m gonna respond to stuff, I think we’ve moved past that point,” Kluber said. “I’m not worrying about physically, health-wise or anything like that when I’m out there…in my mind, it’s just making sure we’re staying on top of stuff, and if something pops up, we address it.”
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