CLEVELAND 100 mph.In the grand scheme of Gerrit Coles outing on Tuesday against the Cleveland Guardians, a singular fastball cannot come close to capturing how he performed or telling the story of the game in which it was thrown. But as the New York Yankees ace continues to settle into his 2026 campaign and distance himself from the elbow surgery that sidelined him for all of 2025, even the most minute of data points can carry significance.In this case, it was the first time since Sept. 28, 2022, that Cole had thrown a fastball that registered 100 mph. He crested 99 on several occasions in the years since, including touching 99.6 mph in a Triple-A rehab start leading up to his return to the Yankees rotation last month. But not in nearly four years had Cole thrown a fastball that clocked in at triple digits.On Tuesday, 100 mph marked the right-handers best bolt during an outing in which his velocity was up across the board on all five of his pitches, even as his effectiveness wavered. He hit it only once on his 34th pitch of the night, a four-seam fastball that Guardians catcher Austin Hedges fouled off in a 1-2 count but his heater hummed in at 97-99 mph all night, and his secondary offerings had an extra bit of giddy-up as well. His slider climbed as high as 92.4, his changeup all the way to 88.6.Times have changed. That Cole was able to access this kind of heat in only his fourth major-league start coming back from Tommy John surgery, and with his 36th birthday approaching in September is undeniably impressive. Yet that velocity doesnt seize the attention like it did early in Coles career, when he was a flamethrower with few peers.As a rookie in 2013, he threw 22 pitches at 100 mph, more than any other starting pitcher in MLB, with only eight other starters (and 27 total pitchers) achieving the feat in the regular season. In touching triple-digits on Tuesday, Cole became the 19th starting pitcher to reach that velocity threshold this season and the 62nd overall. He is an outlier no more.And so, Coles brief achievement in velocity on Tuesday served as a positive footnote amid an otherwise scattershot performance. By most measures, his efforts registered as unremarkable, if not downright underwhelming. Although his stuff was sizzling, Cole mustered only a modest contribution to New Yorks eventual 3-2 victory."I thought Gerrit was OK, manager Aaron Boone said postgame. I thought it was kind of a grind for him. I thought his stuff was good, his fastball was up probably not exactly shapes he wanted, necessarily. But I thought overall, his stuff was good. They obviously made him work hard.Cole completed just four frames marking his shortest outing since June 25, 2024, another time he was working his way back from elbow trouble including a laborious, 29-pitch third inning in which he coughed up the two-run lead afforded to him by rookie Spencer Jones first career homer in the top of the second inning.The velocity was up, Cole noted postgame. I think that was a product of the night being so warm and just sweating, like right from the get-go.And having to just kind of persevere, he added of what mightve contributed to his uptick in velocity. I mean, my heart rate had to be, like, 185 or something like that I haven't probably touched that in quite some time.Play 2026 Soccer Pick 'Em with FOX One and make your picks for the world's biggest soccer tournamentAfter going down in order in the first inning, the Guardians put increasing pressure on Cole in each frame, creating traffic on the basepaths and crafting lengthy at-bats thatexasperated the Yankees ace as he navigated the chaos on a humid, 86-degree night at Progressive Field.I feel like, at a certain point, I was just so gassed, he said. It's just like survival mode just give it your best effort.Cole worked around a pair of baserunners to complete a scoreless fourth, but his pitch count had climbed to 83. So that was the end of the line, an uncommon stopping point for a pitcher accustomed to venturing much deeper into ballgames, albeit an understandable one, considering how the game was unfolding and that Cole is still building his workload back up to a normal level."The good part is somehow we're able to escape with two [runs] and keep us in the game and squeeze another inning out of it before we ran out of pitches, he said.Indeed, for the second consecutive night, the Yankees ground out a narrow victory over the Guardians, this time 3-2 in regulation (a relatively straightforward affair compared to Mondays 7-5 win that required eight pitchers and the entire bench and lasted 3 hours and 41 minutes across 10 innings). Jones titanic, two-run blast it traveled 443 feet to center field plus a solo, go-ahead moon shot from Jazz Chisholm Jr. in the eighth turned out to be enough run support as Cole and five relievers including the five final outs from splitter specialist Fernando Cruz in his first save of the season secured the series for New York.On Wednesday, the Guardians will try to avoid being swept for the first time this season, with a southpaw showdown on deck between Yankees veteran Carlos Rodn and Guardians rookie Parker Messick.As the Yankees embark on a prolonged stretch without captain Aaron Judge, full-roster triumphs along the lines of Mondays and Tuesdays results are encouraging demonstrations of New Yorks depth and determination on both sides of the ball. And on a night when the Yankees face-of-the-franchise pitcher demonstrated flashes of his exceptional arsenal and endured some speedbumps as he continues to find his footing post-surgery, Cole can appreciate the quality of the roster that surrounds him."Tonight was all-hands-on-deck, a persevere type of night, he said. And luckily we put one more up than them.