Tarik Skubal set the tone early, and the Tigers never let the Yankees breathe in a 9-3 win Tuesday night in the Bronx.
What started as a matchup that looked like it could turn into a true pitchers’ duel quickly went sideways for Cam Schlittler. Detroit came out swinging against the Yankees right-hander, piling up a huge first inning and forcing him into damage control almost immediately.
With two outs in the opening frame, Kerry Carpenter launched a homer to center. It had a little bit of everything, too - Spencer Jones appeared to have it tracked down, but the ball popped out of his glove and over the wall. Riley Greene followed by wasting no time at all getting involved, then Colt Keith singled before Spencer Torkelson finished off a long at-bat with a home run to left.
Schlittler escaped the inning, but only after throwing 36 pitches to get through one frame.
The Yankees answered in the bottom half with a two-out home run from Ben Rice, but Detroit kept the pressure on. After a quiet second inning for both clubs, the Tigers broke it open again in the third.
Dillon Dingler singled to start the inning, and with one out Greene connected for his second homer of the night. By then, Detroit was up 6-0 and Schlittler was still fighting to settle in.
Skubal, meanwhile, was cruising. He worked through the Yankees’ lineup in order in the third and then turned in another clean inning in the fourth.
In that frame, he showed exactly why he owns two Cy Young awards, mixing pitches that dropped from 100 mph to 81 mph back-to-back and freezing Ben Rice after Rice had homered earlier. Skubal was in complete command.
Detroit kept adding on in the sixth. Torkelson led off with a single, Zach McKinstry reached on a throwing error by Jose Caballero, and James Outman stepped in to crush a three-run homer. That pushed the Tigers further ahead and ended Schlittler’s night, with Ryan Yarbrough taking over and getting the final outs of the inning.
The Yankees did get one back in the bottom half when Max Schuemann was hit by a pitch, Ali Sanchez singled, and Paul Goldschmidt grounded into a double play that still allowed Schuemann to score. Even so, Skubal closed out the inning and kept Detroit comfortably in front.
His night ended after six strong innings. Skubal finished with 6.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB 9 K, 1 HR on 87 pitches.
The second run was later charged as an error to McKinstry, so it did not count against Skubal. Either way, it was a dominant outing.
From there, the Tigers’ bullpen took over. Yovanny Cruz handled the seventh for the Yankees, while Jacob Waguespack came on for Detroit and worked around a single by Jasson Dominguez and a force out by Anthony Volpe to keep New York off the board.
Detroit’s offense stayed quiet in the eighth, and Waguespack did the same to the Yankees in the bottom half.
The ninth brought a little more action. Jake Bird gave up back-to-back singles to Hao-Yu Lee and Kevin McGonigle before a popout and double play ended Detroit’s turn.
Tyler Holton then came in to finish it off for the Tigers, though the Yankees scratched across one more run. Amed Rosario walked, moved to second on defensive indifference, and scored on a Dominguez single after an ugly failed catch attempt by Carpenter.
Volpe followed with a single that sent Dominguez to third, but Holton escaped with only that one run allowed.
The Tigers still closed out the 9-3 victory and wrapped up the series with one game left to play Wednesday afternoon.
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