There was a late rally Friday night. An early offensive explosion Saturday. And a strong performance against an elite ace Sunday.
The Yankees entered the weekend struggling after a humbling series loss to the rival Orioles, but they closed it riding high, led by a previously dormant offense that showed its potential against a talented pitching staff.
Juan Soto’s three-run, seventh-inning double broke a tie to help send the Yankees to a 5-2, rain-shortened victory and a sweep of the surprising Tigers in front of 35,119 in the rain-soaked Bronx.
After a 56-minute delay following the top of the eighth inning, the game was called.
Detroit arrived in The Bronx having won four straight series, but they blew a ninth-inning lead to start the three-game set and southpaw ace Tarik Skubal couldn’t stop the bleeding on Sunday.
The left-hander notched a career-high 12 strikeouts, but the Yankees made him work, and he was out after six strong innings and 96 pitches.
The Tigers’ bullpen imploded from there.
Shelby Miller and Andrew Chafin combined to allow three runs in the seventh inning as the Yankees broke it open and moved to 10 games over .500 at 23-13 for the first time since this season.
Soto had the big hit, a bases-clearing double off Chafin, a lefty who is tough on left-handed hitters.
Prior to that at-bat, lefties had been 1-for-14 this year against Chafin with seven strikeouts.
Soto was undeterred. He roped a 2–1 sinker down the right-field line.
Skuball is one of the best young pitchers in baseball, a hard-throwing left-hander who has, in the words of Yankees manager Aaron Boone, is “about as good as it gets right now in baseball.”
Unfortunately for Skubal, he was facing Nestor Cortes Jr.
In The Bronx, the unorthodox and crafty lefty has become unhittable early on this year, allowing just five earned runs over 28.1 innings.
His latest outing was his best yet, 6 1/3 innings of three-hit, one-run ball with nine strikeouts that lowered his ERA to 3.72.
Skubal had entered the day with a 1.72 ERA, having allowed just one run over his last two starts spanning 13 innings.
Three batters in, the Yankees were on the board.
Aaron Judge took him over the right-field fence, lacing a 97 mph fastball to the opposite field for his seventh homer of the season.
In the second, Gleyber Torres and Jon Berti had back-to-back singles and Oswaldo Cabrera plated Torres with a double down the right-field line, lining a slider the other way.
Skubal rebounded from there, allowing nothing else over the final four innings. He finished the day scattering six hits, but he still received a no-decision.
Cortes was brilliant over the first six innings, allowing just two base-runners.
After allowing a two-out double to Spencer Torkelson in the second, Cortes retired 13 of the next 14 hitters.
He ran out of gas in the seventh, touched up for singles by former Met Mark Canha and Jake Rogers, ending his afternoon.
Ian Hamilton couldn’t shut the door. Torkelson drove in Canha and the Tigers got even when Javier Baez beat out a potential double play.
