Goldschmidt's Two Homers, Domínguez's Dagger Sink Detroit
Paul Goldschmidt went 2-for-4 with two home runs, two RBI, and two runs scored as the Yankees beat the Tigers 4-2 on June 24. Tarik Skubal struck out nine and walked nobody in six innings — and still took the loss.
The story of the night was Goldschmidt dismantling Detroit's ace one swing at a time. He opened the scoring in the first inning with a 372-foot shot to left, putting New York up 1-0. Detroit answered in the second when a McKinstry single to center scored Torkelson to tie it at 1-1. Goldschmidt wasn't done. He came back and crushed a 427-foot homer to left center, reclaiming the lead at 2-1. Detroit clawed even again in the fourth when a Malgeri sacrifice fly to right scored Torkelson a second time, making it 2-2. Through four innings, this looked like a genuine fight — two teams trading punches with Skubal somehow allowing four earned runs despite issuing zero walks. That's a brutal line for a pitcher of his caliber, and it looks like Goldschmidt simply had his number tonight.
Then came the sixth inning, and Jasson Domínguez ended the conversation. With Ben Rice on base, Domínguez drove a 382-foot homer to left that scored Rice and pushed New York to 4-2. That swing flipped Detroit's home win probability from 49% to 22% — a 28-point collapse in a single at-bat. The Tigers never recovered. What had been a tightly contested game became a Yankees victory the moment that ball cleared the fence.
On the mound, Ryan Weathers gave New York exactly what they needed: six innings, six hits, one earned run, two walks, and six strikeouts — a workmanlike outing that kept the Yankees in front long enough for the offense to do its damage. Fernando Cruz then came out of the bullpen and was flat-out dominant, striking out four batters across 1.1 innings while allowing just one hit and no runs. Detroit's Jacob Waguespack threw 1.2 scoreless innings of his own, but by then the deficit was insurmountable. The Yankees appear to be a team that can beat you multiple ways on any given night, and tonight Goldschmidt and Domínguez made sure Detroit had no answers.