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Giancarlo Stanton‘s 400th career home run lifted the Yankees to a 5-1 win over the Tigers on Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees win improved their record to 69-69, the first time they’ve had that record since 1969.
Here are some takeaways…
–Gerrit Cole, in pursuit of his first Cy Young, strengthened his case Tuesday. After getting out of a first-inning jam, the Yankees ace would get through unscathed for five innings but that would change in the sixth.
After a leadoff triple by Kerry Carpenter, Miguel Cabrera would single home the tying run. While Cole would get out of the sixth with just one run, he had to grind out this start. He scattered a lot of hits and did not get a lot of swing-and-miss stuff but Cole gave the Yankees all he had on a hot, humid night in the Bronx.
Cole got through six innings (104 pitches), giving up just one run on eight hits, no walks and seven strikeouts. He’s lowered his ERA to 2.91.
– Cole hasn’t received much run support this season and tonight was much of the same. With the ace limiting the Tigers to one run, the Yankees could only get one run thanks to DJ LeMahieu who started with a leadoff homer. It’s LeMahieu’s second leadoff homer in four games. In his first 103 games, LeMahieu hit eight home runs in 414 plate appearances. In his last 13 games, the utility infielder has hit seven home runs in 54 plate appearances.
It wouldn’t be until the sixth when the Yankees would add some more runs when Giancarlo Stanton hit a missile over the left-center field wall to give the Yankees back the lead, 3-1. It was Stanton’s 400th career homer and is the 58th player in MLB history to reach that number. He’s also the fourth-fastest to reach the milestone, taking just 1520 games to achieve it.
– Gleyber Torres would give the Yanks some insurance runs in the eighth with a two-run double to extend New York’s lead to 5-1.
– Jasson Dominguez made his Yankee Stadium debut Tuesday and had a tough time at the plate. He struck out in his first at-bat, and reached on a fielder’s choice in his second. In his final at-bat, Dominguez hit a double that split the center and right fielders. The switch-hitting outfielder finished 1-for-4 and is 4-for-17 to start his career.
Anthony Volpe went 0-for-3 with a walk, Everson Pereira finished 1-for-3 and Oswald Peraza went hitless while striking out twice in three at-bats.
Austin Wells was not in the lineup Tuesday as Cole likes to pitch to Ben Rortvedt. Rortvedt went 0-for-2 with a walk.
–Tommy Kahnle (1 IP), Jonathan Loaisiga (1 IP) and Clay Holmes (1 IP) came in after Cole to complete the win, tossing three scoreless innings.
Highlights
What’s Next
The Yankees continue their three-game series with the Tigers on Wednesday night. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m..
The Yankees will send Clarke Schmidt (8-8, 4.56 ERA) to the mound as their opener to go up against RHP Matt Manning (5-4, 3.62 ERA).
