DETROIT — The night was never going to be conducive to good, clean baseball. Temperature at game time was 43 degrees and falling into the 30s with a chilly wind. Miserable.
But this one, at least early on, exceeded even the lowest of expectations.
By the end of the second inning, the two teams combined for 140 pitches (by five different pitchers), eight walks, one costly missed pop-up and one horrendous outfield throw. It took nearly 90 minutes to complete the two innings.
By the time it slogged to its conclusion — four hours after first pitch — the Yankees had beaten the Tigers, 4-2, in the first of three at Comerica Park.
Tigers starter Tyler Alexander, normally a precision strike-thrower, needed 42 pitches to get out of his one and only inning. He loaded the bases with two outs (two walks) and fell behind 3-0 to Josh Donaldson.
He fought back and worked the count full, getting Donaldson to hit a pop-up at the plate. Catcher Tucker Barnhart called for it but it was clear pretty quickly the ball was blowing away from him toward the middle of the diamond. As he was standing still, expecting Barnhart to catch it, the ball actually hit Alexander's glove and fell out.
Barnhart nearly caught the ball off the carom.
Two runs scored.
Right-hander Rony Garcia took over in the second inning but faced only three batters. After walking Isiah Kiner-Falefa and striking out Kyle Higashioka, he spiked a 1-1 pitch to Aaron Hicks, throwing it straight down. It bounced off the mound over near the Yankees dugout.
Tigers head athletic trainer Doug Teter and manager AJ Hinch came immediately to the mound. Garcia left with the Tigers called a cracked fingernail on his right hand.
Yankees starter Gerrit Cole, the $324 million Yankees ace, fared no better. He threw 45 pitches in the second inning and was pulled with two outs. He walked four in the inning, including the free-swinging Willi Castro with the bases loaded.
Robbie Grossman lifted a fly to shallow left field and Akil Baddoo tagged and broke for home. The throw from left-fielder Joey Gallo, though, was so far up the first-base line, Anthony Rizzo had to cut it off.
Cole needed 68 pitches to get five outs. It’s the most pitches he’s ever thrown in two innings in his career.
The game eventually settled down. Right-handers Will Vest, Wily Peralta (making his 2022 debut) and Jacob Barnes, restored order for the Tigers, keeping the Yankees off the board from the third through the sixth inning.
Barnes was summoned in the fifth to face left-handed slugger Gallo with two on and two out. Barnes’ best pitch, the cutter, has been effective against lefties. True to form, he threw five straight to Gallo, striking him out swinging.
Alex Lange and Michael Fulmer, the Tigers late-inning set-up relievers, each pitched a scoreless inning, each posting two strikeouts.
Birmingham Brother Rice grad D.J. LeMahieu lined a two-out RBI single in the ninth off Joe Jimenez to extend the Yankees lead to 4-2.
Right-hander Clarke Schmidt did the same for the Yankees, striking out six over 3⅓ scoreless innings.
The Tigers missed a chance to tie the game in the seventh against reliever Clay Holmes. With runners at second and third and one out, Miguel Cabrera chopped a ground ball wide of third base. Jonathan Schoop broke immediately for the plate.
Third baseman Donaldson fielded the ball several feet wide of the bag and threw a strike to home plate. Higashioka applied the tag as Schoop was sliding directly into his pads.
Cabrera earlier moved a little bit closer to the 3,000-hit plateau. He lined a 3-2 slider from Cole up the middle leading off the second inning for career hit No. 2,996.
Four more and he becomes the seventh major league player to accumulate 3,000 hits and 500 home runs in his career.
