Cole throws 6 scoreless innings in return, Rays rally past Yankees 4-2 for 16th win in 19 games

NEW YORK (AP) — Gerrit Cole pitched six scoreless innings in his return from elbow ligament replacement surgery but shortstop José Caballero's error led to a four-run eighth inning that boosted the Tampa Bay Rays over the New York Yankees 4-2 on Friday night for their 16th win in 19 games.

Austin Wells homered for the first time since April 28, a fifth-inning drive off Nick Martinez, before Tampa Bay rallied to deal the Yankees their third straight loss and 10th in 14 games. The Rays, a big league-best 34-15, are 4-0 against the Yankees and opened a 5 1/2-game AL East lead over New York

Yankees star Aaron Judge went 0 for 4 with a game-ending flyout to the center-field warning track with a man on and is in 1-for-24 slide that dropped his average to .245. Judge has gone a career-high 11 games without any RBIs.

A 35-year-old right-hander who had surgery in March 2025, Cole allowed two hits and three walks while striking out two. The six-time All-Star and the 2023 AL Cy Young Award averaged 96.1 mph with his four-seam fastball.

Caballero, back at shortstop after missing 10 days with a broken finger, allowed Chandler Simpson's one-hopper to bounce off his glove leading of the eighth.

Junior Caminero singled off Tim Hill (0-2), Jonathan Aranda followed with an RBI double and Yandy Díaz was intentionally walked. Richie Palacios hit a comebacker that could have been a 1-2-3 double play but the ball bounced off the glove of a leaping Hill, over Caballero and into center for a two-run single. Ryan Vilade added a sacrifice fly.

Ian Seymour (3-0) allowed Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s RBI triple in the eighth and Bryan Baker got three outs for his 14th save in 17 chances.

Tampa Bay’s Jonny DeLuca hurt his right hamstring while running to first on a seventh-inning single, then left after having trouble going from first to third on Cedric Mullins’ double. Rays manager Kevin Cash said DeLuca likely will be put on the injured list — the outfielder didn't play for the Rays after Aug. 6 last year because of left hamstring injury.

Trent Grisham, who missed Thursday's game because of a sore knee, had three hits for the Yankees.

Yankees RHP Ryan Weathers (2-2, 3.58) and Rays RHP Drew Rasmussen (4-1, 3.19) were scheduled to start Saturday.

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Shirtless fans of the New York Yankees react during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Friday, May 22, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Tampa Bay Rays' Jonathan Aranda, right, reacts after hitting an RBI double during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Friday, May 22, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

New York Yankees' Austin Wells hits a home run during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Friday, May 22, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

New York Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Friday, May 22, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Tampa Bay Rays' Richie Palacios, right, hits an RBI single during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Friday, May 22, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Tampa Bay Rays' Jonathan Aranda, right, hits an RBI double during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Friday, May 22, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

SpaceX is launching Starship to orbit on Friday in its boldest test yet: a 22-hour flight that aims to recapture the entire rocket in a move meant to accelerate moon and Mars travel.

If all goes well, Elon Musk's company will perform a double catch with the massive booster returning to its Texas pad six minutes after blasting off and the bullet-shaped spacecraft steering there Saturday. Both will be plucked from midair by mechanical arms secured to the launch tower.

The Federal Aviation Administration provided final approval a few hours ahead of the planned late afternoon liftoff.

If Musk and his team succeed, it will be the first time every single piece of a rocket that is launched into orbit gets retrieved for the purpose of recycling. Musk sees this leading to the kind of fast and consistent launch rates necessary for building moon bases and sending people to Mars.

“It’s hard to describe how I’m going to feel when we pull this off,” SpaceX’s Kiko Dontchev, vice president of launch, said at a NASA tech summit last week at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. “It’s so incredibly exciting. It’s such a feat of engineering.”

Once in orbit, Starship will deliver 26 of the company’s most advanced Starlink satellites. The plan is for Starship to complete 15 laps around the world at an altitude of around 170 miles (275 kilometers) before heading back to the launch site for Saturday’s grand finale.

SpaceX has already made three booster grabs at the company’s sprawling Starbase near the U.S.-Mexico border. This will be the first attempt to capture the upgraded version that stretches 236 feet (72 meters) — the production model for moon and Mars travel. It will also be the first time the company attempts to catch the spacecraft, which spans 171 feet (52 meters). Together, they form the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket — an astounding 407 feet (124 meters) in height.

The spacecraft portion of the 14 previous Starships ended up in the ocean, either by design at flight’s end or by accident in a stream of flaming wreckage. During the first full-scale test flight in 2023, multiple engines failed to ignite and the tumbling rocket's self-destruct system was activated.

The last test, in September, was the first to reach orbit, but SpaceX did not try to recover any of the rocket stages.

SpaceX plans to start launching Starships from Florida within a few months and from Louisiana in a few years. Scaled-up infrastructure, combined with full rocket reusability, is “how you go from zero launches to 10 to 100 to 1,000 to 10,000 to 100,000,” Dontchev said.

SpaceX’s smaller Falcon rockets will continue to fly from Cape Canaveral, carrying astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA and from California carrying Starlinks. Satellites also will keep hitching Falcon rides for now. Musk wants Starships to eventually replace Falcons.

Falcon rockets “are still not fully reusable. We still throw that second stage away every single flight. Starship, we’re going to catch both the first stage and second stage,” Dontchev said.

NASA is paying SpaceX billions of dollars to land Artemis astronauts on the moon with Starships. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is the other major player. NASA expects to decide a year before the Artemis IV lunar landing — the first by astronauts in more than half a century — whether to get the moonwalkers to the surface with Musk’s Starship or Bezos’ Blue Moon.

During next summer’s Artemis III mission, astronauts will practice docking their capsule with a Blue Moon and then a Starship in orbit around Earth. That will set the stage for an Artemis moon touchdown as early as 2028.

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SpaceX's mega rocket Starship is stacked and prepared for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

People gather to watch as SpaceX's mega rocket Starship, getting stacked and prepared for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

SpaceX's mega rocket Starship is stacked and prepared for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

SpaceX's mega rocket Starship is stacked and prepared for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

SpaceX's mega rocket Starship is stacked and prepared for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)