NEW YORK — Yankees ace Gerrit Cole took another step in his recovery from Tommy John surgery on his right elbow by making 20 throws off flat ground on Monday. “It felt really good today,” Cole said before New York opened a three-game series against the Minnesota Twins at Yankee Stadium. “I was fairly accurate and I had a good time.”

The session didn’t last long, a blink-and-you-missed-it sequence of 20 tosses on flat ground across the Yankee Stadium outfield on Monday afternoon. But for Gerrit Cole, it represented one of the most anticipated events of his summer.