Paul Goldschmidt walked up to face Tarik Skubal with a 3-1 count in the first inning of a road series finale and hit a two-time Cy Young winner's four-seamer 372 feet into the left-field seats. Then he did it again two innings later -- low curve, 427 feet to left center, 104.9 mph. The New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers 4-2 on Wednesday night at Comerica Park to take the series, and it was as clean a two-hour-and-thirty-one-minute road win as you could've asked for.
Jasson Dominguez added the go-ahead two-run shot in the sixth. Ryan Weathers gutted through six. David Bednar closed it. Yankees are 48-31, first in the AL East, heading to Boston.
The Sixth Closed It
Detroit had done a decent job of answering back through four innings. Skubal gave up back-to-back one-run leads and the Tigers tied it twice -- once on a McKinstry line drive single to center in the second that scored Torkelson, and again on a Malgeri sac fly to right in the fourth that scored Torkelson a second time. (Torkelson had a night as a base runner, even if he didn't drive anything in himself.)
Then the sixth happened.
Ben Rice led off with a single. Two outs later, Dominguez worked the count full against Skubal and got a changeup down the middle. He turned on it -- 382 feet, 101.2 mph, left field. Rice scored. Yankees 4, Tigers 2. That was the biggest WPA swing of the game, and the Tigers' eight-hit night against Yankee pitching couldn't cash enough of it in to matter.
Goldschmidt Owns Skubal at 38
The wind at Comerica was blowing in from left field at 6 mph on Wednesday night. Goldschmidt hit two out anyway.
The first came on a 3-1 count -- dead-red territory, and Goldschmidt got an elevated four-seamer and drove it 372 feet to left for his 13th homer of the year. (Skubal opened the game by throwing three straight balls to his leadoff hitter before landing that pitch, which isn't optimal game planning against anyone who's been this locked in.)
In the third, with two outs and nobody on, Goldschmidt got a low curve and went 427 feet to left center at 104.9 mph. That's the hardest-hit ball of the entire game. It wasn't a lucky swing catching a pitch flush -- Goldschmidt was in control of that at-bat the whole way.
Goldy finished 2-for-4, 2 HR, 2 RBI, 2 runs. It was the 28th multi-homer game of his career and put him at 14 for the season. Skubal struck out nine and walked nobody -- he's still a genuinely elite pitcher -- but gave up three home runs, tying his career high (the last time was 2021). At 38, Goldschmidt's now the eighth-oldest player to go deep twice batting leadoff in a single game since 1900. I don't know exactly who tracks that record, but I'm glad someone does.
Weathers Holds the Wheel
Weathers wasn't dominant, but he didn't need to be. Six innings, 6 hits, 2 runs (1 earned), 2 walks, 6 strikeouts, 97 pitches. He gave up a run in the second on a McKinstry single that scored Torkelson, and another in the fourth on a Malgeri sac fly -- Torkelson again. But he kept settling in and never let Detroit build a rally that could've changed the game's shape. The Tigers touched him up for hits in bunches and still only scored twice.
Fernando Cruz was excellent out of the pen -- he came in after Camilo Doval walked a batter in the seventh and struck out 4 of the 5 hitters he faced in 1.1 innings. Bednar got the ninth on 12 pitches: one hit, no drama, 16th save.
This was a well-run road win. Six hits, three of them homers, against the best pitcher in the American League last year. The Yankees didn't need to be perfect -- they just needed Goldschmidt to be Goldschmidt.
Boston's next, starting Friday. This team's playing the best baseball it's shown all year.
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.
