Gerrit Cole exits early, but Yankees hold off Tigers

DETROIT — A flurry of mutual ineptitude swirled together on a frigid and windy Tuesday night at Comerica Park to make for an astoundingly bad baseball game, and it was the Yankees who were just a little less bad than the Tigers in a 4-2 victory.

But the win, which pushed the Yankees to 6-5 on the season, didn’t overshadow the horrible outing turned in by Gerrit Cole, who had no feel for his pitches on the 40-degree night that saw wind-chills dip into the 30s.

Cole, in failing to get out of the second inning, did nothing to eliminate some of the speculation that has existed in the game — including in his own organization — that the righthander, while still very good, isn’t quite the same pitcher without the sticky substances Major League Baseball began trying to banish from the game last June.

“Certainly, never had anything like that in my career before,” said Cole, who allowed two runs, one hit and five walks — matching a career high — over 1 2/3 innings. “I still made good pitches in the second inning but when I needed to make one, I didn’t make it.”

Clarke Schmidt, who relieved Cole and struck out six over 3 1/3 scoreless innings, was among the few from either side who distinguished themselves on a night the teams combined for 10 hits and 16 walks and went a combined 1-for-19 with runners in scoring position (the Yankees went 1-for-13 and stranded 11 runners while the Tigers went 0-for-6 and stranded 10).

“I was attacking the zone,” said Schmidt, who lowered his ERA to 1.23 in three appearances. “I had two different breaking balls for me working tonight and the changeups, I got some outs with that as well. It was kind of tough in the beginning to get a feel for the fastball because it was it was so cold…that was really the key to the success tonight was being able to command both breaking balls.”

But back to Cole, who came in with a 5.59 ERA from his first two outings.

It was the first inning in each of Cole’s first two starts that gave in trouble, but Tuesday it was the second.

Spotted a three-run lead entering the bottom half, Cole didn’t get out of the frame, throwing 46 of his 68 total pitches (Cole threw 37 strikes and 31 balls).

Miguel Cabrera climbed within four hits of 3,000 with a leadoff single in the inning. Spencer Torkelson followed with a liner but right at Josh Donaldson at third. But Cole walked Akil Baddoo and Tucker Barnhart to load the bases for Willi Castro. The shortstop fouled off five two-strike pitches in an 11-pitch plate appearance that ended with an RBI walk that made it 3-1.

Cole went 1-and-0 on leadoff man Robbie Grossman, who would send a full-count pitch to Joey Gallo in short left. Baddoo was sent from third and scored easily as Gallo’s throw pulled Kyle Higashioka some 10 feet up the first base line. After Cole walked Austin Meadows to reload the bases, Aaron Boone had seen enough, replacing the somewhat staggered-looking pitcher with righty Clarke Schmidt (who would escape the jam to keep a 3-2 lead).

“I’m pretty disappointed right now,” Cole said.

The Yankees took a 2-0 lead in the first when Tigers starter Tyler Alexander dropped Josh Donaldson’s wind-blown pop-up with the bases loaded that came down between the plate and the mound.

Righty Rony Garcia replaced Alexander to start the second but would leave the game, with Aaron Hicks up, suffering a cracked nail on his right hand after, there’s no other way to describe it, spiking the ball nearly straight at his feet on his release. Hicks scored Isiah Kiner-Falefa (who reached base three times) with a sacrifice fly off Will Vest, who replaced the injured Garcia. DJ LeMahieu gave the Yankees their only hit with RISP with two outs in the ninth on an RBI single that made it 4-2.

“Not a lot,” Boone said of the offense, “but enough to shake hands at the end of the day.”

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.