Detroit Tigers blasted, 13-0, in the Bronx by New York Yankees and Gerrit Cole

NEW YORK — The Detroit Tigers, fresh off winning four of five games against the American League Central-leading Minnesota Twins, traveled to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx for a test against baseball's best team.

The New York Yankees squashed the Tigers, 13-0, in front of 42,026 fans in the first of three games. Yankees ace Gerrit Cole took a perfect game into the seventh inning and his offense blasted four home runs.

"We were all aware," Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. "Everyone's aware of that. Nobody wants to go down in history on the other side of it. There was no talk of it. But the mindset is tough. Gerrit Cole is dominant."

Despite recent improvements, the Tigers (21-31) never had a chance in Friday's showdown, as Cole carved them up and retired the first 20 batters he faced. The Tigers failed to put a runner on base until Jonathan Schoop's hard-hit single up the middle with two outs in the seventh.

"There's pressure," Schoop said, "because you're thinking about it and it's in your head, but I feel no pressure (at the plate). I tried to see the ball and put a good swing, and I got a hit."

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Schoop drilled Cole's first-pitch cutter to break up the perfect game.

"We faced one of the best pitchers in the game," Schoop said. "He's really good right now, on his 'A' game. He executed all his pitches and got us off balance. ... We were losing, but you don't want to get a perfect game or no-hitter thrown against you, so you try your best to break it up. Thank God I got a hit there."

Miguel Cabrera tacked on another hit by delivering a single through the hole and into right field, but Javier Báez stranded his teammates when he struck out swinging on Cole's down-and-away slider.

Cole, who lowered his ERA to 2.78, struck out nine batters and threw 73 of 102 pitches for strikes.

"It was pretty exciting," Cole told reporters. "The fans were in it. I heard them chanting my name, which was pretty magical. It just means so much to us when we have them behind us. They can be such a force."

Schoop and Cabrera were the only players to reach safely against Cole in his 11th start. Cole, a top-five finisher in AL Cy Young voting in each of the past four seasons, didn't concede a walk, despite falling behind 3-0 to Tucker Barnhart in the sixth.

"He was incredible," Barnhart said. "He was able to get ahead, pound the strike zone and make it really difficult on us. The cutter that he's got, it's a problem in a good way for him. It's a good pitch. He had everything working."

Tigers right-hander Elvin Rodriguez showed up to Yankee Stadium for his third start and the fourth MLB appearance of his career. The 24-year-old allowed 10 runs on 11 hits and two walks with four strikeouts, throwing 88 pitches.

New York's four home runs off Rodriguez totaled 1,599 feet.

"He's going to have a long career," Barnhart said of Rodriguez, who declined to speak to reporters postgame. "He's going to be pitching in Yankee Stadium quite a few more times, and I'm sure he'll look back on this as a growing moment in his career. His next start is big. We're going to do everything we can to prepare him."

Cole recorded 17 swings and misses — seven fastballs, four sliders, five cutters and one changeup — to go with 17 called strikes. The Tigers' average exit velocity against him: 80 mph.

"He was in complete control of virtually every at-bat," Hinch said. "I've seen a lot of his games, and when he's calm and under control, and he's not sweating the near-misses, he's a different pitcher. He's one of the best pitchers in the league, and we saw it firsthand."

In the eighth inning, Tigers position player Harold Castro took the mound for the fourth pitching appearance of his career. He entered with a 0.00 ERA across 2⅔ innings, but after two pitches, the Yankees scored a run.

"I hate using him," Hinch said. "It's not fair to him. It's not even really good for the game. I wouldn't have used him had it been a no-hitter or perfect game to protect the integrity of the game."

Aaron Judge collected an RBI single off Castro, finishing 4-for-5 with two RBIs. Five Yankees posted multi-hit performances — Judge, DJ LeMahieu (Birmingham Brother Rice), Matt Carpenter, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Jose Trevino — and the team logged 13 runs on 15 hits and five walks.

The Tigers' offense finished with three hits, no walks and 10 strikeouts.

Yankees start homer party

The Yankees scored a pair of runs off Rodriguez in the third inning on a pair of home runs, courtesy of Trevino and Judge.

Both hitters crushed fastballs.

Trevino drilled his solo home run on a 92.7 mph fastball, turning on the inside pitch and sending the ball 405 feet to left field. After Rodriguez retired the next two batters, Judge cranked a solo home run on a 94.4 mph fastball. The ball traveled 378 feet to right field.

Those homers put the Yankees ahead 2-0.

Judge has 20 home runs in 50 games this season. The Tigers, as a team, have 30 home runs in 52 games, led by Schoop and Jeimer Candelario with five each.

"He's elite," Hinch said. "When he gets going like this, he's impossible to pitch to it feels like. It feels like the right-field fence is so short for him because any ball that he hits on the barrel, he goes 10 rows deep.

"He's covering a lot of pitches. I think he's maturing as a hitter. As a young hitter, you could get up top a little bit with him and find a hole, but he's closing those holes. When he does that, it's loud."

Before the long balls, Rodriguez battled his way through two scoreless innings. He worked around Judge's single in the first inning and Josh Donaldson's walk in the second.

A big mistake

Willi Castro, in his seventh career appearance in center, dashed toward the infield on a fly ball from Trevino with two outs in the fourth inning. After about six steps, he slammed on the brakes and reversed course toward the warning track.

The ball still soared over Castro's head, a product of his misjudgment, and instead of the Tigers ending the inning, the Yankees and Trevino were rewarded with a two-run triple.

"He made a mistake," Hinch said. "I've seen a lot of everyday center fielders make that mistake on the swing where it looks like it's off the end of the bat but it was actually off the barrel. ... He just made a mistake and misread it."

To end the fourth, Aaron Hicks drilled an RBI single to right-center gap. He tried to stretch his hit into a double. This time, Willi Castro fielded the ball at the track in right-center and fired a superb throw to Báez, who applied the tag at second base for the third out.

"He can play center," Hinch said. "Gold Glove center fielders make mistakes. He just made a mistake. ... He made a great read on the ball to right-center, a great (read on the barehanded play and threw a bullet to second, made another good play going to his left. He made a mistake. He's human."

Fifth-inning mess

The Yankees continued their onslaught in the fifth inning, scoring five more runs and chasing Rodriguez from his start. Just as in the third, the Yankees capitalized with home runs.

Anthony Rizzo hit a three-run homer, once again on a fastball from Rodriguez, to put the Yankees up 8-0. Carpenter made it 10-0 with a two-run home run — his fourth homer in seven games with New York this season — on Rodriguez's fastball.

The Tigers replaced Rodriguez with righty reliever Jacob Barnes, who immediately loaded the bases. Kiner-Falefa doubled to right field, Trevino walked and Hicks was hit by a pitch.

With the bases juiced, LeMahieu singled off first baseman Spencer Torkelson's glove for two runs and a 12-0 lead. Runners stood on the corners for Judge, but he grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers muster 3 hits in 13-0 loss to New York Yankees