DETROIT — Looking at it from the outside, it might seem a little daunting for the Tigers, the lowest scoring team in the American League, to face a pair of Cy Young winners in back-to-back games.
Players don’t look at it that way.
“You don’t reach this level by backing down or bowing down,” Tigers manager AJ Hinch said before his team squared off against 2019 Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole and the Yankees Friday. “We have a lot of respect for him. … We faced Shane Bieber yesterday, Cole tonight and Corbin Burns is lined up to face us in Milwaukee.
“This is the big leagues. I don’t know if you can look at it any other way. We all signed up to play at the highest level.”
The Tigers were overmatched by last year's Cy Young winner Bieber on Thursday, but they fought Cole to a 1-1 draw through six innings and took it all the way to the 10th inning.
And Robbie Grossman walked it off. After the Yankees scored on a passed ball in the top of the 10th, Grossman hit a two-out, two-run home run off former Tigers lefty Justin Wilson, to give the Tigers a thrilling 3-2 win.
In the top of the 10th, reliever Bryan Garcia struck out Gio Urshela and got Gleyber Torres to ground out, which moved free runner Aaron Judge to third. Rogers, who had just made a run-saving block on a pitch in the dirt, completely missed a change-up that was up and fading away, allowing Judge to score.
It was quite a pitchers' duel — starters and relievers — on a damp, chilly night (45 degrees at first pitch).
Jeimer Candelario, extending his major league-leading active on-base streak to 24 games, had a double and two singles off Cole. He ambushed first pitches on the first two; the second one in the third inning scored Grossman from third.
He singled again in the sixth, this time winning a nine-pitch battle.
Candelario made a bid for a fourth hit, and a go-ahead RBI, in the eighth inning. With Grossman at second, he hit a line drive, a ball that left his bat at an exit velocity of 108 mph.
But Yankees first baseman DJ LeMahieu leaped and snared it.
The Tigers stranded runners on third in the third, fifth and sixth innings against Cole, but forced his pitch count over 100 and ended his night early.
On the other side of the pitchers' duel was Tigers rookie Casey Mize.
You hear a lot about his stuff, his diverse and electric five-pitch mix. You probably don’t hear enough about his battle level.
It’s fierce.
He matched Cole for five gritty innings on a chilly Friday night at Comerica Park. He fought for his outs, fought to keep his team in the game knowing the odds of putting up crooked numbers against Cole were long.
He made one regrettable pitch — a grooved 93-mph four-seam fastball on an 0-2 count that left-handed hitting Rougned Odor lined into the right field seats. Other than that, he allowed four hits and just two other runners in scoring position.
He struck out seven, getting the first two hitters in the Yankees order — LeMahieu and Giancarlo Stanton — three times each.
But the Yankees made him earn it. They worked nine three-ball counts against him, including the first four hitters of the game. But Mize won six of those nine battles.
He only got seven swings and misses on 39 swings, but the Yankees took 19 called strikes, nine on two-seamers.
All the long counts took a toll on his pitch count, though. He was at 93 pitches after five and his night was over.
But the Tigers bullpen continues to answer the call. Coming into the game, Tigers relievers had allowed the fourth fewest runs in the Majors since May 16. Kyle Funkhouser, Jose Cisnero and Michael Fulmer kept it a 1-1 game through the eighth inning.
Gregory Soto then made a serious escape in the ninth. He threw two wild pitches, allowing pinch-runner Tyler Wade to get to third with one out. But he struck out Stanton and Judge to send the game to the bottom of the ninth.
Soto fell behind Judge 2-0, then got back in the count with a pair of evil sliders. After Judge fouled off a third slider, Soto blew him away with a 99-mph fastball.
