Gerrit Cole reached 99.6 mph with his four-seam fastball, throwing 86 pitches over 5⅓ innings for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre against the Syracuse Mets on Saturday night in likely his next-to-last minor league injury rehabilitation start before rejoining the New York Yankees.

Returning from reconstructive elbow surgery March 11 last year, Cole threw 56 pitches for strikes and averaged 97 mph with his fastball.