DETROIT – The closest battle Saturday afternoon at Comerica Park was who it was more of a slog for: Carlos Rodon or his offense?
Rodon’s good run of starts took a dip into quicksand in an inefficient outing while the Yankees’ bats sleep-walked through a 4-0 loss to the Tigers.
In his shortest outing of the season, Rodon gave up four runs across 3 ⅓ innings while needing 90 pitches to record 10 outs.
But even if he had been better, the Yankees’ lack of offense was the bigger problem as they were held to just four hits – three of them singles, two from Oswaldo Cabrera – while getting shut down by Keider Montero and the Tigers’ bullpen.
Montero, the rookie right-hander, entered Saturday with a 5.76 ERA across his first 10 games (nine starts) in the big leagues, but he tossed five scoreless innings against the Yankees (73-51) while giving up just two hits and two walks while striking out five.
Before the ninth inning, when Aaron Judge led off with a double – the Yankees’ only extra-base hit of the day – they had only gotten into scoring position once, which came in the second inning when they put runners on the corners with two outs for Ben Rice, who flew out to end the threat.
The teams are scheduled to play the rubber game of the series on Sunday night in Williamsport for the Little League Classic, though a bad forecast could threaten to push that back to Monday at Comerica Park.
The four runs that the Tigers (60-64) scored off Rodon were one more than the Yankees had given up in their last three games combined while Aaron Boone’s club was shut out for the seventh time this season.
Rodon had been strong of late before Saturday, posting a 2.22 ERA in four starts after the All-Star break.
But he fell victim to plenty of long at-bats against the Tigers, who forced him to throw 36 pitches in a three-run second inning and 30 more in a scoreless third. He only walked one but entered six full counts and had 24 of his pitches fouled off.
Anthony Volpe nearly got the Yankees on the scoreboard in the ninth inning, but his fly ball with two on fell just short of the left-field wall, into the glove of Matt Vierling for the final out.
