DETROIT — Yankees players, coaches and, yes, manager Aaron Boone, raided the cold-weather closets late Monday morning for the first of a three-game series that was moved to afternoon start times because of unusually frigid temperatures, even for this city in the Midwest used to hard winters and hard springs.
They all donned, and layered in, an assortment of gear — everything from compression sleeves to ski hats to hoodies, gloves and turtlenecks, many of the latter hoisted up over their faces.
“We know we have a job to do,” Boone said before the game. “Doesn’t matter if it’s 80 and sunny or 40 and drizzling. We’ve got a job to do.”
On a day that started with flurries and a first-pitch temperature of 38 that, with a steady wind, made the real-feel temperature 19, the Yankees did not do it.
Carlos Rodon, seemingly impervious to the cold by taking the mound in short sleeves, sputtered after a dominant start and Yankees bats never got on track in a 6-2 loss to the Tigers in front of 14,132 hearty souls at Comerica Park.
Rodon, a proud outdoorsman who spends much of his winters in Indiana hunting, allowed six runs (five earned), four hits and three walks over six innings in which he struck out eight.
The Yankees (6-4), who outhit the Tigers, 7-5, were mostly held in check by Casey Mize. The righthander allowed one run, four hits and three walks over six innings. He struck out six. The Tigers (6-4) have won six of seven after a three-game sweep by the Dodgers in Los Angeles to open the season.
In the third inning, Ben Rice tripled into the gap in right-center with one out, but with Aaron Judge batting, the DH got picked off on a snap throw to third by catcher Jake Rogers. Cody Bellinger lined to second to end the inning.
Rodon, perfect in the first two innings, struck out Colt Keith looking at a 94-mph fastball to start the third but walked Rogers. He then took issue with a borderline full-count slider on Ryan Kreidler, the No. 9 hitter, that plate umpire Bruce Dreckman called a ball, resulting in another walk.
After rebounding to strike out Justyn-Henry Malloy, Rodon threw a 1-and-0 changeup to Andy Ibanez that caught too much of the plate and the third baseman blasted it out to left, the three-run homer making it 3-0.
The Yankees got one run back in the fifth. Trent Grisham singled and went to second on Oswaldo Cabrera’s groundout to second. Rice walked for the second time and Judge hit a ground smash up the middle for his MLB-leading 18th RBI, which made it 5-1.
The Tigers came right back in the bottom half, the inning opening with Cabrera booting Keith’s leadoff grounder. Rogers walked and Kreidler’s sacrifice bunt moved the runners. Malloy’s two-run single to center made it 5-1.
Keith led off the seventh with a single and scored on a groundout by pinch hitter Trey Sweeney, making it 6-1. The Yankees scored an unearned run in the eighth to make it 6-2.
Extra bases
For the second time in a week, the Yankees signed righty Adam Ottavino to a major-league contract and added him to the active roster. The club signed the New York City native on April 1, which corresponded with closer Devin Williams going on the paternity list, and he appeared in two games before getting DFA’d last Friday when Williams returned. He elected free agency two days later but was re-signed Monday after the Yankees optioned Brent Headrick to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after the lefty pitched two innings in Sunday’s extra-inning loss to the Pirates. It likely will be another short stint for Ottavino as righty Ian Hamilton, who started the season on the IL because of a viral illness suffered in spring training that delayed his buildup, is expected to be activated before Tuesday afternoon’s game . . . Boone said DJ LeMahieu, who is with the team in Detroit and on the IL with a left calf strain, could start a rehab assignment Friday.
