Gerrit Cole didn't just lose on Monday night in Detroit -- he got hit with one of the weirder pitching lines you'll see all summer. The Tigers beat the New York Yankees 5-3 at Comerica Park, making it three straight losses for a club that still holds first place in the AL East but doesn't look much like it lately.
The stat that'll follow Cole around for a few days: the Tigers' leadoff batter hit a single, then a double, then a triple, then a home run in four separate innings. Single in the first. Double in the second. Triple in the third. Riley Greene's 422-foot shot to right-center in the fifth. The full leadoff cycle, in order, spread across Cole's entire outing.
The Third Inning Did It
Zach McKinstry led off the bottom of the third with a triple. That's how it started.
McKinstry scored on a Kevin McGonigle groundout to tie it 1-1. Kerry Carpenter singled. Riley Greene walked. Spencer Torkelson lined a single to center -- Carpenter scored, Greene moved to third. Colt Keith followed with another single to center -- Greene scored. Three-run inning, 3-1 Tigers, and the rest of the night was damage control.
Cole struck out five and had his moments. He fanned the side in the second after Torkelson's leadoff double, which felt like a reason for optimism. (It wasn't.) The fourth inning added a run when McGonigle doubled Hao-Yu Lee home to make it 4-1, and by the time Greene sent a 2-2 changeup 422 feet to right-center in the fifth, Cole was done -- 4.1 innings, nine hits, five earned runs, one home run. Paul Blackburn and Ryan Yarbrough combined for 3.2 innings of scoreless relief after him, which was sharp work thrown into an already-decided game.
Framber Valdez Didn't Care
There's no other way to frame it: Valdez was excellent. Six innings, four hits, one earned run, eight strikeouts. He made a struggling Yankees offense look exactly like a struggling Yankees offense (which isn't all that hard right now, but still).
The one run they scratched off him came in the second inning -- Ali Sánchez hit a sharp ground ball that found the left-field gap and plated José Caballero from second. Sánchez's RBI double: the Yankees' only answer to Valdez all night.
Cole took the loss, dropping to 2-2.
The Seventh Inning
The seventh gave you something to hang onto for a couple minutes. Drew Anderson drilled Sánchez on the right wrist with a 98-mph fastball -- Sánchez had to leave the game, right wrist injury, status uncertain heading into Tuesday. Austin Wells came in at catcher.
Then Amed Rosario stepped in and drove Anderson's second pitch 373 feet to right-center. Two-run shot, his seventh homer of the year, and suddenly it was 5-3 with something resembling a rally brewing.
It wasn't enough.
The eighth gave the Yankees another look: Anthony Volpe singled, Jazz Chisholm Jr. singled, one out, two on. Will Vest came on and struck out Jasson Domínguez looking. (Vest's second save. Goodnight.)
What to Watch Tomorrow
Sánchez's wrist is the most immediate concern. He came in hitting .316 with a .802 OPS -- one of the quieter success stories on this team in 2026 -- and taking a 98-mph fastball flush on the wrist isn't something you walk off overnight.
The Yankees dropped to 46-32 and have now lost three in a row -- outscored by 13 combined runs across the Cincinnati series and tonight. They went 0-for-22 with runners in scoring position over the previous two games against Cincinnati, and while tonight looked marginally better, Rosario's homer still required exactly one runner on base.
Game 2 in Detroit is Tuesday. Three straight. Starting to itch.
Jimmy writes the Bronx Pinstripes game recap after every Yankees game. Beat-reporter pacing, fan's heartbeat. He calls opposing players by last name and has no patience for dead-air innings.
