Aaron Judge hit his 44th home run, Gerrit Cole pitched six strong innings and the visiting New York Yankees defeated the Detroit Tigers 3-0 on Friday night.
Judge, who hit his 300th career homer in the Yankees’ previous game Wednesday against the Chicago White Sox, blasted a solo shot in the eighth.
Oswald Peraza supplied a home run in his first major league appearance this season. Peraza, who played in 70 Yankees games the past two seasons, was called up from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre this week.
Cole (4-2) held the Tigers to four hits while recording eight strikeouts. Clay Holmes struck out two in the ninth for his 26th save.
Jace Jung and Trey Sweeney, called up from Triple-A Toledo, made their major league debuts for the Tigers. Jung walked twice and struck out twice. Sweeney went 1-for-3.
The Yankees scored a run in the first against Beau Brieske (1-3). Gleyber Torres singled and reached second on an error by center fielder Parker Meadows. Juan Soto walked before Judge flied out. A walk to Giancarlo Stanton loaded the bases before Alex Verdugo hit a sacrifice fly.
Peraza made it 2-0 in the fifth. He hit a sweeper from Brant Hurter over the left field wall with one out. Torres followed with a double but Hurter recovered against the two most dangerous hitters in the lineup. Soto flied out and Judge struck out to leave Torres stranded.
Detroit had runners in scoring position in the sixth. Kerry Carpenter and Matt Vierling singled and moved up on a groundout. Cole snuffed out that threat by striking out Jung.
Jose Trevino led off the top of the seventh with a double, but Hurter responded by setting down the next three batters.
The Tigers had two baserunners with two outs in the seventh. Sweeney singled for his first major league hit and Jake Rogers reached on an error by shortstop Anthony Volpe. Luke Weaver got out of that jam as Parker Meadows popped out.
Judge’s homer off Hurter was deposited over the center field wall at an estimated 431 feet.
–Field Level Media