The New York Yankees enjoyed a better than anticipated opening month, but they still are showing some inconsistency.
They return home Friday for the opener of a three-game series against the Detroit Tigers following mixed results on a road trip to face the Milwaukee Brewers and Baltimore Orioles.
New York went 3-4 on the trek, scoring 15 runs in each of its two wins in Milwaukee before managing just six aggregate runs while dropping three of four at Baltimore.
The Yankees ended the trip on Thursday with a 7-2 loss to the Orioles. Gleyber Torres hit his first homer of the season, but the Yankees finished with only six hits, struck out 11 times and went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position.
After amassing 37 hits in the two wins at Milwaukee, New York had 22 hits in Baltimore and finished 1-for-18 with runners in scoring position.
Juan Soto had two of New York’s hits on Thursday and finished 6-for-14 in the series to raise his average to .331. However, Aaron Judge went 1-for-13 in the series and is hitting .197.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Judge is “just grinding right now to get there. And he will. Somebody’s going to pay big time. He’ll get it going — and look out when he does.”
Detroit scored 10 runs in its last visit to New York on Sept. 7 to begin an impressive 15-8 finish to last season.
The Tigers are 13-13 since winning their first five games this year. They are 8-4 in their past 12 while taking two of three apiece against the Minnesota Twins, Tampa Bay Rays, Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals.
Matt Vierling hit a two-run homer and drove in three runs in a 4-1 win over the Cardinals on Wednesday afternoon. He is batting .306 (11-for-36) over his past 11 games.
The Tigers had eight hits on Wednesday after collecting 14 in an 11-6 win in the second game of their Tuesday doubleheader against St. Louis.
“Our challenge is not milestones or creating a certain something, be it a winning month or a target of some sort,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “The target is to win as many series as we can. … I don’t subscribe to spending a lot of time assessing things on a macro level.”
Marcus Stroman (2-1, 3.69 ERA), who is coming off his shortest outing of the season, will open the series for New York. On Sunday in Milwaukee, Stroman gave up four runs on six hits in four-plus innings.
Stroman is 2-1 with a 1.75 ERA in five career starts against the Tigers, whom he last faced July 19, 2019, for the Toronto Blue Jays.
Reese Olson (0-4, 3.18 ERA) will get the ball for the Tigers on Friday. He is one of three Detroit starters with sub-3.20 ERAs, but the Tigers have been blanked in two of his starts. After allowing six runs on April 8 at Pittsburgh, Olson has yielded six runs, four earned, in 18 1/3 innings (1.97 ERA) over his past three outings.
Olson last pitched on April 26 against the Kansas City Royals. He allowed one run on three hits with three walks and eight strikeouts in seven innings, and Detroit allowed seven runs in the ninth inning of an 8-0 loss.
In his lone career start against the Yankees, the right-hander struck out 10 over 4 1/3 innings in a loss on Aug. 28, 2023, in Detroit. Olson gave up one run on three hits and four walks.
–Field Level Media
