Goldy and Dominguez power the Yankees to a series win against Skubal
- Davis Cornell
- Jun 24
- 4 min read
The Yankees took down the Tigers 4-2 to win the series and improve to 17 games above .500. Ryan Weathers took the mound for the Yankees and faced off against the back-to-back AL Cy Young Award winner, Tarik Skubal.
“This was just a really good win for us, against a dominant pitcher that I feel like was on top of his game,” Aaron Boone said.
Paul Goldschmidt led off the ballgame with a solo home run to left field, giving the Yankees a 1-0 lead.
Weathers worked a 1-2-3 shutdown bottom of the first inning and picked up his first strikeout of the ballgame.
In the bottom of the second inning, Zach McKinstry lined a RBI single into centerfield to tie the game up at 1-1.
Goldy gave the Yankees the lead right back with a solo shot to left center field, his second of the ballgame and 14th of the year.
“I mean, obviously, he's one of the best pitchers in the game,” Goldy said. “And facing him is a tough challenge. So I just try to get in there and compete. And fortunately, I was able to get a couple of balls I was able to get out of there.”
An E9 from Jasson Dominiguez in the bottom of the fourth inning set the Tigers up with two runners in scoring position with nobody out. That error would cost the Yankees as Ben Malgeri tied the game up at 2-2 with a sacrifice fly.
The Yankees displayed some great defense in the bottom of the fifth inning as Weathers made a heads-up throw to third base on a comebacker back to the mound for the first out. Then Max Schuemann made a couple of great plays in center field for the final two outs.
Ben Rice picked up a two-out single in the top of the sixth inning. Dominguez followed with a no doubt two-run bomb to deep left field to make up for his error earlier and give the Yankees a 4-2 lead.
Weathers navigated around a one-out base knock in the bottom half of the frame to work a shutdown inning.
Camilo Doval replaced Weathers in the bottom of the seventh and went from ahead in the count 0-2 to walking the leadoff batter. Doval would go on to pick up the next two outs, then Fernando Cruz took over and picked up a strikeout to end the inning.
Final line for Weathers: Six innings pitched, allowed six hits, two runs, only one earned due to the Domininguez error, walked two, and struck out six on 97 pitches. He threw his fastball 35% of the time, the sweeper 24%, the changeup 23%, the sinker 10%, and the slider 8%. Weathers topped out at 97.1 mph, averaging 95.8, and had 10 whiffs.
“They were just making good swings, a really good lineup,” Weathers said. “Just today was a grind for sure.”
Cruz remained in the game for the bottom of the eighth and allowed a lead-off single, then struck out the next three hitters to strand the tying run at the plate.
The Yankees' closer, David Bednar, got the call for the bottom of the ninth and worked a scoreless inning to pick up the save and give the Yankees the series win.
The Yankees will now head to Boston for a four-game series against the Red Sox. Cam Schlittler will get the start for the Yankees and face off against Connelly Early. First pitch is slated for 7:10 p.m. ET on the YES Network.
My thoughts on the game: What a win for the Yankees tonight. I’m not going to lie, I didn't have much faith going into tonight when I saw Skubal was on the mound. Huge start from Weathers, outdueling the two-time Cy Young winner to lead the Yankees to the series win. The bullpen did their jobs, as Doval, Cruz and Bednar combined to throw three shutout innings with five strikeouts. Four of those strikeouts were from Cruz; his splitter was unhittable as usual. Dominguez crushed a huge two-run bomb to help propel the Yankees to the series win and make up for his error earlier in the game. He was struggling with SKubal's changeup in his first two at-bats, but made an adjustment and crushed one in his third at-bat. Dominguez, who has really struggled with left-handed pitching earlier in his career, has been great this year. He is now hitting .321 with one home run, four doubles, three RBIs, and a .893 OPS. Goldy stayed hot with two more homers tonight. He has a chance to hit 30 home runs this year at 38 years old if he keeps up this pace. Goldy is now hitting .297, with 14 bombs, 39 RBIs, and a .923 OPS and is 7-for-13 with four homers and a 1.645 OPS against Skubal. Just a great night all around. On to tomorrow, as the Yankees will need Schlittler to give them some length, as Cruz and Bednar will most likely not be available after both pitching back-to-back days.
“There's not really a recipe to try to beat him,” Goldy said of his success against Skubal. “He's got four really good pitches. He competes as good as anyone. As you saw, he got me that third at bat. And just try and get in and compete, and hopefully good things happen.”
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