NEW YORK (AP) — Giancarlo Stanton smashed his 400th home run, Gerrit Cole burnished his Cy Young Award credentials and the New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers 5-1 on Tuesday night.
DJ LeMahieu hit his second leadoff homer in four games and Gleyber Torres had a two-run double for the last-place Yankees (69-69), who have won four straight and seven of eight to get back to .500 for the first time since Aug. 15.
Stanton's two-run homer off reliever José Cisnero broke a 1-all tie in the sixth inning. The slugger reached 400 homers in 1,520 career games — fourth-fastest in major league history behind Mark McGwire (1,412), Babe Ruth (1,475) and Alex Rodriguez (1,489). Albert Pujols is fifth at 1,523.
Stanton's 451-foot laser to left-center was caught by a fan with a glove in the front row of the elevated bleachers above Detroit's bullpen. The large videoboard displayed the No. 400 milestone and Stanton — often the target of boos at Yankee Stadium since arriving in 2018 — came out of the dugout for a curtain call, doffing his helmet to the crowd of 31,553.
The 2017 NL MVP with Miami, Stanton became the 58th big league player to reach 400 home runs and 10th to do it with the Yankees.
The drive made a winner of Cole (13-4), who struck out seven in six innings of one-run ball and took over the American League lead in ERA at 2.90. He gave up eight hits but walked none, throwing 104 pitches on a steamy, 87-degree night.
The right-hander beat Detroit for the second time in a week and improved to 9-1 in 13 career starts against the Tigers, who had won four in a row following a five-game slide.
Miguel Cabrera had an RBI single off Cole in the opener of his final series at Yankee Stadium. The 40-year-old Cabrera, presented with farewell gifts by the Yankees in a ceremony on the field before the game, plans to retire after this season.
Javier Báez broke out of an 0-for-14 slump with three hits for the Tigers. But he struck out swinging with a runner on in the sixth as Cole threw a 98 mph fastball on his final pitch.
Tommy Kahnle, Jonathan Loáisiga and Clay Holmes combined for three innings of one-hit relief.
Joey Wentz (2-11) took the loss after issuing a leadoff walk to Aaron Judge in the sixth. Stanton connected with two outs, and Torres added his two-run double in the eighth.
Prized rookie Jasson Domínguez went 1 for 4 with an eighth-inning double for New York in his Yankee Stadium debut. The 20-year-old Domínguez had an impressive start to his career last weekend in Houston, where he homered twice in three games — including a two-run shot off three-time Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander in his first big league at-bat.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Yankees: 1B Anthony Rizzo will miss the remainder of the season with post-concussion syndrome. He was placed on the injured list Aug. 3.
UP NEXT
Tigers RHP Matt Manning (5-4, 3.62 ERA) starts the middle game of the series Wednesday night against Clarke Schmidt (8-8, 4.56), who allowed three earned runs over 4 2/3 innings last Thursday in a no-decision at Detroit.
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