Tigers swept by Yankees, falling in shortened, soggy series finale

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New York — Nasty day in the Bronx. It was 51 degrees at first pitch, rain fell steadily from the first inning on and it seemed a good bet that the finale of this series wasn't going to go the full nine innings. It felt, in fact, like it might be a race to five innings.

"Our sport is not really made to be played in wet conditions," Tarik Skubal said.

Certainly not. But the show, as it must, went on. And the Yankees proved to be the better mudders on this day.

Juan Soto slammed a bases-clearing double off lefty Andrew Chafin to break a 2-2 tie in the seventh inning and sent the Yankees to a 5-2, rain-shortened win and a series sweep of the Tigers on Sunday in the Bronx. The Tigers are now 3-13 at Yankee Stadium since 2022.  

BOX SCORE: Yankees 5, Tigers 2 (7½ innings)

The game was suspended before the Yankees came to bat in the bottom of the eighth and eventually called.

"The field became more and more unplayable," Tigers' manager AJ Hinch said. "It became dangerous. Guys couldn't run full speed. There were puddles going everywhere. They had to fix the field every half-inning. We tried. Everybody tried. The grounds crew was amazing. (Umpire crew chief) Alan Porter was awesome how he communicated everything.

"We tried to get the game in, but enough was enough."

The last straw might've been when Matt Vierling singled in the top of the eighth and could barely get out of the slippery batter's box. Hinch came out between innings and started a dialogue with Porter about the conditions.

"It's tough that we were down," he said. "It's a frustrating ending. But it was probably the smart play given the conditions."

The loss muddled another eye-popping start by Skubal. In just six innings, the Tigers' lefty established a career-high 12 strikeouts making him the youngest Tiger to punch out at least 12 in a game since Max Scherzer struck out 14 on May 30, 2010. Both were 25 and Skubal was 142 days younger than Scherzer was.

But he'd trade a couple of those Ks for a W.

"It was wet from start to finish," Skubal said. "The only time it was dry was in my pregame bullpen. We kind of knew that was going to happen, but it's unfortunate we didn't get a chance to try and comeback."

He and Aaron Judge had a couple of interesting battles. Judge slammed a mislocated 97-mph four-seam fastball 399 feet into the seats in right-center in the first inning. Catcher Jake Rogers wanted the 1-1 pitch up and in, but Skubal left it over the middle of the plate. Judge's seventh homer of the season left his bat at 109 mph.

Then leading off the sixth, Judge tattooed another four-seamer into the same gap, this one stayed in the park for a double.

Skubal, though, bowed his neck and punched out the next three hitters, strikeouts Nos. 10, 11 and 12. As Judge was walking off the field, he and Skubal had a moment.

"I had a lot of emotion," Skubal said. "We locked eyes for some reason and I just said, 'Like, you are really good at this game.' That's just what I told him. There might've been some bad words in there, but that was the gist of it. You think I would've learned from the first at-bat when he back-sided that pitch.

"But I was like, no, he can't do it twice and he did it twice (laughing). I didn't want to walk him to lead off an inning. I wanted to make him hit another pitch. He's really good and he did just that."

In the second inning, the Yankees strung three competitive at-bats together to push across another run. Gleyber Torres fought off a changeup and lined it over shortstop Javier Báez's head and Jon Berti followed, lining a 2-2 four-seamer the opposite-way to right field.

With two outs, No. 9 hitter Oswaldo Cabrera stayed on an elevated slider and served it oppo into the corner in right, a ground-rule double.

"The conditions dictated what you can throw and it was tough to throw the slider," Skubal said. "That's why I was frustrated in the second to get beat on a slider. I'm not saying I'm going to execute every slider but it was hard to get a grip. The rosin bag was wet, my glove was wet, the balls we were getting were wet. That dictated the game for me."

But from that point on, Skubal owned the fight.

He struck out the side in the third, quite the feat when you consider the "side" was Juan Soto, Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. Skubal punched out Stanton three times, getting him chasing changeups each time.

After Judge doubled to start the sixth, Skubal, approaching 90 pitches on a muddy mound, struck out Stanton, Alex Verdugo and Gleyber Torres to end his outing. On his 96th and final pitch, he blew a 99-mph four-seamer right past Torres for strikeout No. 12.

"There were so many reasons for him to become frustrated," Hinch said. "Even though he was a little bit in the second inning, he didn't concede. He won a big battle in the second to limit the damage and that was all they got. That's why we love him. He's going to do his best every chance he gets the ball."

Rogers, again, sequenced Skubal's arsenal expertly blending high-velocity (96-mph average) four-seamers and sinkers to set up the changeup. He ended up throwing 32 changeups and getting 12 whiffs on 17 swings with it.

He got 10 of his 24 called strikes with the sinker.

He left after the sixth with the Tigers down 2-0 and still trying to figure out Yankees' lefty Nestor Cortes, who through six innings allowed only a second-inning double by Spencer Torkelson. He had nine strikeouts.

But in the seventh, Mark Canha and Rogers singled and with one out, Yankees manager Aaron Boone summoned right-hander Ian Hamilton.

Torkelson, who came in on a 6-for-44 skid, produced his second double of the game, scoring Canha. Rogers later scored on a ground out by Báez.

The Yankees, though, sent up nine hitters against three relievers in the seventh. Shelby Miller couldn't command his pitches, loading the bases with a pair of walks. Hinch brought in Chafin to face Soto, who emptied the bases with a hooking drive into the right-field corner.

Chafin reloaded the bases and Alex Lange was summoned to face Torres. After nine pitches and a half-dozen requests for a dry baseball, Lange got the Tigers out of the inning.

"The early lead, we knew, was going to be important," Hinch said. "They got it. We did fight back in the seventh but the conditions just got worse and worse."

chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com

@cmccosky