NEW YORK -- After missing two months of action because of right elbow discomfort, Yankees ace Gerrit Cole pitched in his first rehab game for Double-A Somerset on Tuesday evening. And he looked much like the Cole of old, pitching 3 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing two hits and striking out five against Hartford.

Cole threw 34 of 45 pitches for strikes. His fastball was clocked as high as 97 mph.

"Really fun overall. It was a nice environment. Felt really great to get back out there and get back in the flow of things, get some adrenaline," Cole said after his outing.

"Threw all my pitches for strikes. I left a couple soft breaking balls over the plate. One was a base hit, the other one I got away with, and I was able to move the ball to both sides of the plate and get the top and the bottom of the strike zone. Yeah, it was good."

When asked if he feels like he's close, Cole responded: "Definitely close. I'm not sure how many more we'll need but definitely closer rather than farther away. It should be right around the corner here."

Yankees manager Aaron Boone would not commit to how many starts Cole would need in the Minor Leagues before returning to the Majors.

¡°That¡¯s something that we will kind of work through as we go. When do we want to take him [back to the Major Leagues]? How many pitches do we want him built up to? Those will all be factored in,¡± Boone said.

Cole, the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner, underwent an MRI on March 11 after relaying difficulty bouncing back between his spring outings, likening his level of fatigue to what he usually would feel after throwing 100 pitches during the regular season. He had more testing performed on March 12, then visited Dr. Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles on March 14. ElAttrache confirmed that there was no damage to Cole¡¯s ulnar collateral ligament.