Yankees strike quickly, shut down Tigers in opener, 4-1

Detroit — The names on the New York Yankees aren't as readily recognizable, and sitting in last place in their division and likely missing the playoffs certainly aren't familiar positions for the organization.

But Monday against the Tigers, the Yankees flashed some of their big bats and ability to pitch.

The Tigers, despite some great pitching from Reese Olson and some brief excitement in the ninth inning, lost 4-1 in the opener of the four-game series at Comerica Park.

The only offense for the Tigers was provided by pinch-hitter Akil Baddoo in the ninth inning with his ninth homer into the grandstand in right field off Yankees relief pitcher Clay Holmes. Spencer Torkelson followed with a single, but was quickly doubled up on Kerry Carpenter's grounder.

"We were feeling like we still had a chance, a shot, and just had to keep going," Baddoo said. "Unfortunately, we came up short. We just keeping fighting until the last out, and that's what you want to see that."

The Yankees (63-68) came into the game playing less than .500 baseball and in last place in the American League East, losers of eight of their last 10 games.

But manager A.J. Hinch talked before the game about the Yankees' ability to strike quickly, and sure enough, the Yankees did twice in this game.

BOX SCORE: Yankees 4, Tigers 1

The key turning point occurred in the seventh inning, just after the Tigers (59-72) failed to tie, or go ahead, in the sixth.

Yankees' Aaron Judge and Gleyber Torres connected on back-to-back homers - the seventh time the Yankees have hit consecutive homers this season - off relief pitcher Beau Brieske giving the Yankees a 3-0 lead.

The other Yankees outburst was in the fifth, off Olson, who was dominant otherwise.

Olson (2-6) was limited to only four and one-third innings, having thrown 100 pitches (62 for strikes). But in that time frame, Olson established a career-high with 10 strikeouts, and the 20 swing-and-misses was a new season-high for a Tigers pitcher.

"His stuff was pretty good, the put away pitches were obviously pretty good, it just took a lot of pitches to get through his outing," manager A.J. Hinch said. "He continued to miss bats, that's encouraging. He had real good stuff.

"Just so many pitches per inning, and some of that is built out of the punchouts, some of it is long counts, and then putting up long at bats. But I do think the spin was real, his fastball was pretty good. He knows he can pitch against any lineup.

"He can take great pride in how he handled his night. We wish he could have gone a little bit deeper, as every pitcher wants to go deeper."

The only time New York got to Olson was the fifth inning. With one out, Judge (who had struck out the previous two at bats against Olson) walked. Torres then drilled a long double to the wall in left-center field, Judge sprinting home with the only run Olson allowed.

"The stuff was obviously there, there were a lot positive to take away," Olson said. "Some things I could clean up. I wasn't very efficient, a few at-bats I'm taking to a sixth or seventh pitch range. I would like to finish those early to go deeper into games.

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"It's an indicator (swing and misses) I have the stuff that it takes. I just have to clean up some stuff like those walks and long at bats. It's one of those nights you have everything working, but I would have liked to have trust it a little more in the zone and finish those at bats quicker."

The Yankees added an insurance run in the eighth inning off Jose Cisnero. Isiah Kiner-Falefa singled, moved to second base on a grounder, and scored on Oswaldo Cabrera's single.

The lone uprising the Tigers had against Luis Severino (4-8) was in the sixth inning, but they couldn't push across any runs.

Zach McKinstry lined his second triple of the game, with one out, igniting the threat. But McKinstry was thrown out at home on Riley Greene's fielder's choice, and with two out, Matt Vierling singled, Greene moving to second base. But Torkelson struck out, ending the inning.

Severino went seven innings, allowing five hits and no runs or walks, while striking out eight.

"(Severino) threw a lot of fastballs and we haven't handled the fastball great," Hinch said. "He throws a lot of strikes and we just couldn't really put anything together. A guy on third base and two outs, and less than two outs, and we couldn't push anything across. It was a tough night for us.

"He's had his struggles (this season) but tonight, he didn't."

ted.kulfan@detroitnews.com

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