DETROIT – The Tigers’ climb to get back into the American League postseason picture continued Monday night. Framber Valdez outdueled former Astros rotation mate Gerrit Cole with six innings of one-run ball, supported by two RBIs from Kevin McGonigle and a Riley Greene home run in a 5-3 win over the Yankees at Comerica Park.
The Tigers’ fourth straight victory extended the longest current winning streak in the AL. Their 12-6 record in June also leads the AL.
Valdez, who went winless in May with a 5.93 ERA, is 2-1 with a 2.45 ERA in June. He has gotten back to his sinkerball ways, inducing seven groundouts on Monday. But more importantly, he pounded the strike zone, recovering from two-out walks in his first two innings – the latter setting up his lone run on an Ali Sánchez RBI double in the second – to retire his final 10 batters in order. He ended each of his final four innings on strikeouts, three of them on a curveball that accounted for seven of his 16 called strikes and five of his 13 whiffs.
Not even a Dirt Cam delay in front of second base could disrupt Valdez, who beat the Yankees for the first time in seven career regular-season meetings. It came at the expense of an old teammate.
Cole had never allowed more than three runs against the Tigers in 14 career meetings, entering Monday with a 10-1 record and a 1.84 ERA against Detroit. He seemed on his way to continuing the trend, striking out the side in order after Spencer Torkelson’s leadoff double in the second inning. But Zach McKinstry’s leadoff triple set off a three-run third inning that included McGonigle’s RBI groundout and Torkelson’s two-out RBI single.
McGonigle doubled home Hao-Yu Lee in the fourth inning before Greene crushed a Cole changeup and sent it a Statcast-projected 422 feet to right-center field for his ninth home run of the season and fifth in June. Cole left two batters later, having allowed five runs on nine hits over 4 1/3 innings.
Valdez’s eight strikeouts tied his season high from April 30 at Atlanta. Amed Rosario’s two-run homer off Drew Anderson halved Detroit’s advantage in the seventh, but Drew Sommers and Will Vest combined for a scoreless eighth inning en route to Vest’s second save of the year.