Bridgewater, N.J. -- As the Yankees played under a national spotlight in the Field of Dreams game in Iowa, an event of arguably equal importance to their season took place in a quieter ballpark back east: Corey Kluber saw his first game action since May 26.

The Yankees still hope that Kluber, who is on the injured list with a shoulder strain, can contribute meaningful starts in September and October, and help them in a Wild Card race in which every game will be significant.

On Thursday, Kluber took a tentative step in that direction, making his first minor league rehab start for the Double-A Somerset Patriots against the Portland Sea Dogs.

Planning at the outset to throw roughly 30-40 pitches or two innings, Kluber lasted 1 ⅓ innings and threw 45 pitches, 20 for strikes, though it’s worth noting that the home plate umpire wasn’t exactly consistent.

Kluber allowed five runs, struck out one, walked four (including one with the bases loaded), and hit two batters.

Beyond the results -- never the most important takeaway from a first rehab start -- scouts in attendance thought that Kluber looked fine: Not especially sharp, and a little disappointing on velocity, but neither issue was enough to appear alarming.

Health-wise, Kluber said he felt fine.

“I just didn’t control the strike zone like I would have liked to,” he said. “I [was] encouraged by the way I felt physically while I was out there.”

Kluber’s fastball sat in the high-80s and touched 90 mph, and his command of his famous breaking ball -- not a curve or a slider, but a hybrid pitch that he can spot to both sides of the plate when it’s at its best -- came and went.

He threw one excellent breaking ball to strike out Roldani Baldwin swinging in the first, and mixed in a few other nice ones along the way. But he also struggled to command it enough that Double-A hitters mostly declined to chase.

As one scout put it, “the hitters are telling you how good the breaking ball is.” Generally, they were not fooled.

Kluber is a notoriously slow starter in seasons, posting an ERA over 4.00 in every April of his career but two. That was the case in 2021, when he looked at first like a questionable investment at $11 million.

But he ramped up his velocity a tick by May, found his feel for the breaking ball, and pitched to a 2.27 ERA in that month. That stretch culminated with a no-hitter in Texas on May 19. After one more start, Kluber injured his shoulder.

On Thursday, as one scout said, “he looked like he did in April,” which means that this was the beginning to the rehab assignment that the Yankees could have expected.

“It's exciting to see where we’re at,” he said of the race. “I’m definitely looking forward to that when the time comes.”

He said that he expects to make another rehab start in five or six days.

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