ARLINGTON, Texas — For six innings Monday night, Gerrit Cole looked like the ace the Yankees need him to be down the stretch and into October.
And then came another injury scare.
While warming up for the bottom of the seventh, Cole appeared to have trouble with his right calf, and after a quick conversation with a trainer and Aaron Boone, he left the game.
Cole left the game with a cramp in his right calf, the Yankees announced.
Cole had looked like he was trying to stay loose in the dugout in the top of the seventh inning, but then walked out of the game in unceremonious and disturbing fashion.
The reigning AL Cy Young winner, who missed the first two and a half months of the season with ulnar nerve inflammation, had thrown six strong innings of one-run ball with nine strikeouts before leaving the game.
Cole had thrown just 82 pitches, eight of which came in a shutout bottom of the sixth inning after he had a long wait in the top of the sixth as the Yankees put together a five-run rally.
Entering the night, the Yankees were staring down an impending rotation crisis with Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt expected to return from the injured list this weekend, which would have forced one of their starters into the bullpen had everyone stayed healthy.
As of Monday evening, it was suddenly in the air.