The Detroit Tigers gave the New York Yankees a taste of their own medicine, slugging four home runs — three in the fourth inning off Carlos Carrasco — and relying on reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal to do the rest in a 5-0 win at Comerica Park on Tuesday afternoon.
“Command is king, and [Carrasco] has to put it where he wants,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “There were clearly some mistakes that they put charges into.”
The Bronx Bombers (6-5) have now lost three straight games and the first two of this three-game set to Detroit, where they have scored a combined two runs.
“We haven’t scored in the last two days,” Boone said. “…It’s a tough game to hit. We got shut down these last few days… Today, Skubal got a lead and just beat us. Period.”
Skubal picked up his first win of the season, going six scoreless innings while allowing just four hits with six strikeouts and zero walks. After allowing singles to New York’s first two batters of the game, Paul Goldschmidt and Ben Rice, the Detroit ace retired 16 straight Yankees.
“He’s as good as it gets,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Pressured him early like that, you hope you can cash in there. But that’s also what makes him really good. He was tough. His fastball was good, but he’s so unpredictable. He can throw that changeup or drop in that slider at any point. You see that delivery and the deception that he creates with it. He’s hard to track. He had a good day against us.”
Goldschmidt picked up his second hit of the game to break Skubal’s run, but no real threat was mounted in the sixth, even when Aaron Judge singled with two outs to put two men on.
By that point, the game was already well in hand for the hosts. After a lead-off double by Spencer Torkelson in the bottom of the second and a single by Colt Keith to put runners at the corners, Zach McKinstry’s sacrifice fly put Detroit ahead.
The Tigers jumped on Carrasco in the fourth, with Torkleson taking the first pitch he saw from Carrasco to lead off the frame 404 feet to center field to double the Yankees’ deficit.
After Keith grounded out for the first out, McKinstry pulled a hanging sinker over the right-center field fence. Three pitches later, Dylan Dingler made it 4-0 when he caught up to an inside sinker and sent it 377 feet into the left-field bullpen.
Carrasco lasted just 4.1 innings, giving up those four runs on six hits with three strikeouts and a walk. Through three starts as a Yankee, his ERA is sitting at a swollen 7.71.
“They stung some balls against him,” Boone said. “It’s imperative that he commands all of it. He has to have that elite command. He doesn’t have a lot of margins… He’s gotta be near the edges with the split-change and the slider and strategically move in the sinker and the four-seamer. Probably too many in the heart [of the plate] that they were able to take advantage of.”
Ryan Yarbrough could not prevent the long ball in the fifth when Kerry Carpenter pulled his fourth home run of the year over the right-field fence.
The Yankees will attempt to avoid the sweep on Wednesday afternoon, with Max Fried taking the hill against Jack Flaherty.
