CHICAGO — For Gerrit Cole’s 34th birthday, the Yankees gave their ace the equivalent of coal.
They hurt him defensively, leading to a pair of unearned runs against him, and did not provide much with their bats.
That combination was enough to cost the Yankees a chance at a sweep as they fell to the Cubs, 2-1, on Sunday afternoon at Wrigley Field.
Cole was strong across six innings of work, allowing just three hits and one walk while striking out seven while dueling with his best friend Jameson Taillon. Cole retired the final 12 batters he faced and 15 of 16 after the first inning, but it was that opening frame — prolonged by a Gleyber Torres fielding error — that came back to haunt the Yankees (82-61) as they missed a chance to extend their lead beyond a half-game over the Orioles atop the AL East.
Taillon, who threw eight shutout innings against the Yankees last July, stifled his former teammates again Sunday, tossing six innings of one-run ball. The Yankees went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left seven men on base.
Cole had two outs and a man on first base in the bottom of the first inning when Cody Bellinger hit a sharp ground ball to second base. Torres tried to play it on the backhand but booted it for his 17th error of the season, allowing both runners to be safe.
Ex-Yankee Mike Tauchman then put together a tough at-bat against Cole, walking on the 10th pitch he saw after fouling off four pitches and taking two close balls near the zone to load the bases.
Isaac Paredes came up next and blooped a single into left-center field to put the Cubs up 2-0.
Besides leading to the two runs, Torres’ error forced Cole to throw 31 pitches in the inning, which helped end his day after six.
The Yankees put runners on the corners with one out in the second inning, but came away with only one run on a sacrifice fly from Anthony Volpe. Left fielder Ian Happ, who had a terrific game defensively, made a strong diving catch on Volpe’s sinking liner to make it a sac fly.
The Cubs nearly gifted the Yankees a run in the sixth inning, when Giancarlo Stanton hit a fly ball to deep center field that Pete Crow-Armstrong lost in the sun as it dropped for a double with one out. But Jazz Chisholm Jr. struck out, and then after Taillon balked Stanton to third base, Anthony Rizzo grounded out to end the threat.
Clay Holmes, in his first appearance since losing the closer’s job on Tuesday, breezed through a scoreless eighth inning with two strikeouts.
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