A line-drive rocket right off the bat.

On Tuesday night, Stanton hit his 400th home run, Gerrit Cole improved his Cy Young Award chances, and the New York Yankees defeated the Detroit Tigers 5-1.

For the last-place Yankees (69-69), DJ LeMahieu blasted his second leadoff homer in four games, and Gleyber Torres added a two-run double.

“I’m happy we’re playing good baseball,” Cole said.

In the sixth inning, Stanton’s two-run homer against reliever José Cisnero broke a 1-1 tie. The slugger hit 400 home runs in 1,520 games, which was the fourth-fastest in big league history, after only Mark McGwire (1,412), Babe Ruth (1,475), and Alex Rodriguez (1,489). Albert Pujols ranks seventh with 1,523 points.

“That’s a big amount. “We just celebrated that moment with him, and coming in late to tie the game,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “It’s a very G-esque ball that no one hits like that.” “A true missile.”

A fan in the front row of the raised bleachers above Detroit’s bullpen caught Stanton’s 451-foot missile to left-center. “The guy made a great catch on it,” Stanton recalled, and he saw him after the game, giving him and his family some bats and balls in exchange for the keepsake.

The enormous videoboard flashed the 400th hit, and Stanton, who has been the subject of boos at Yankee Stadium since his arrival in 2018, came out for a curtain call, doffing his helmet to the crowd of 31,553.

“That was great,” Stanton replied. “It was awesome seeing all of my teammates, and they’re excited and having fun with it, and being able to go out for a curtain call was the cherry on top.”

Stanton, the 2017 NL MVP with Miami, became the 58th major league player to achieve 400 home runs, and the 10th with the Yankees.

“I didn’t have a number in mind when I first started playing this game, but it’s pretty cool to be here now and keep it going,” Stanton said.

Cole (13-4) was declared the winner after striking out seven batters in six innings of one-run ball and taking over the American League lead in ERA at 2.90. On a hot 87-degree night, three days before his 33rd birthday, the right-hander allowed eight singles but walked none while throwing 104 pitches.

“It was just so thick tonight,” Cole commented. “The humidity was incredible. Unfortunately, I led off the sixth inning with a triple and had to go to work from there.”

The six-time All-Star is vying for his first Cy Young Award, having finished second twice and in the top five three times previously. He won for the second time in a week and moved to 9-1 in 13 career starts against the Tigers, who had won four straight after a five-game losing streak.

In the first game of his final series at Yankee Stadium, Miguel Cabrera hit an RBI single against Cole. Cabrera, 40, wants to retire after this season after receiving gifts from the Yankees during a pregame ceremony on the field.

“It was awesome,” said Detroit catcher Jake Rogers. “It’s really cool to see what different teams get out of him.”

The Tigers’ Javier Báez broke out of a 0-for-14 rut with three hits. In the sixth inning, though, he struck out swinging with a runner on as Cole delivered a 98 mph fastball as his penultimate pitch.

Tommy Kahnle, Jonathan Loáisiga, and Clay Holmes pitched three scoreless innings of relief.

Joey Wentz (2-11) received the loss after walking Aaron Judge to lead off the sixth inning. Stanton hit a two-run home run with two outs in the eighth, and Torres followed with a two-run double.

“They walk and hit home runs, that’s what they do.” “And they took advantage of it today,” added Rogers.

Since April 30, 2021, Detroit has lost seven consecutive games at Yankee Stadium.

“We’re not going to be out of it until we’re out of it,” Stanton remarked.

New Kid On Planet Earth

In his Yankee Stadium debut, prized rookie Jasson Domnguez went 1 for 4 with an eighth-inning double for New York. When the Bleacher Creatures yelled his name during his first roll call, the 20-year-old center fielder, nicknamed The Martian for his incredible athletic prowess at such a young age when he signed, flashed a “E.T. phone home” sign as his salute.

“It’s from the movie,” Domnguez explained via translation.

He said he got the idea from “a combination of people,” admitting he’s never seen Steven Spielberg’s science-fiction masterpiece, which came out 21 years before he was born.

Eovaldi was greeted by Houston’s star second baseman with a home run to lead off the game, and he closed his appearance with a home run with one out in the second inning.

Altuve hit his third home run of the game, as well as his 15th of the season, in the third inning off of Dane Dunning, a starter who came out of the bullpen in order for the Rangers to give Eovaldi his first start since July 18. Eovaldi had been taken out of the game due to a discomfort in his right forearm.

Since Houston’s victory in the first game of the series on Monday by a score of 13-6, Altuve had gone deep in each of his previous four at-bats. The run was stopped by Dunning in the fifth inning when he got him to ground out.

Because Altuve hit two home runs in the first game of the series, he now has multiple home runs in each of the last two games for the first time in his career.

Since Richard Hidalgo in the year 2000, Altuve is the first player for Houston to have consecutive games with multiple home runs.

In the first game of the series, the No. 9 and leadoff hitter for the Astros, respectively, Mauricio Dubón and Jose Altuve, hit back-to-back home runs for the Astros.

They were successful once again on Wednesday when Martin Maldonado hit a home run from the bottom of the order in the third inning, and then Altuve added another one to give them a 9-0 lead. In the first three innings, Houston scored three runs in each of those innings.

This is how the home Grand Slam tournament would always be for the country that has won the Davis Cup, the team event contested by many nations, the most. But it wasn’t that way for 18 years, until two young Black men, Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton, made it so again on Tuesday night.

Tiafoe, the son of a tennis facility maintenance man in suburban Maryland, and Shelton, the son of a former top-60 tour pro who became a highly recognized college coach, come from opposite backgrounds. Tiafoe, the 25-year-old veteran who has become one of the tour’s most popular players, has been helping Shelton, the 20-year-old who didn’t have a passport a year ago, through his debut season as a professional.

“Great guy off the court, but a nightmare to deal with,” Shelton said of Tiafoe over the weekend.
Shelton, the powerful lefty whose serves of over 150 mph and forehands of 112 mph have become the talk of the tournament, was correct.

“Ben has wanted to play me at the Open for a long time,” Tiafoe said of his game plan. “Make him play a lot of balls, and just try to make it a really tough night for him.”

Tiafoe and Shelton put up a tight, nervy show that lasted past midnight and into Wednesday morning at Arthur Ashe Stadium on a thick, steamy, and breezeless night that seemed to get hotter as it went on. The US Open is famed for its late-night spectacles, historic clashes that only a select few can follow through to the end. It wasn’t like that on Tuesday and Wednesday, when the stadium remained loud and alive and Shelton and Tiafoe fought blows and counterpunches from beginning to end.

Shelton won in straight sets, 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (7), 6-2.

Tiafoe seemed tight and sloppy, giving up two service breaks and doing much of Shelton’s work for him in the first set.

But Tiafoe quickly returned to form, refusing to treat the match like a testosterone-fueled hitting fest. He grinded out points and games while allowing Shelton to cool off and tighten up, as younger players frequently do, in order to draw even.

The match hinged on a pivotal third-set tiebreaker, a seesaw struggle that Shelton was poised to win before committing two consecutive double faults. Tiafoe, who had relinquished control of the set just a few games previously, found himself on the verge of disaster once more.

With Tiafoe a point away from taking a two-sets-to-one lead, Shelton is sure to have plenty of moments like these in the future, barring an injury or some other tragedy.

When Shelton lays into a serve or a stroke like only he and Carlos Alcaraz, the world No. 1, can these days, a distinct sound emanates from his racket. It sounds more like a sledgehammer nailing a spike into a railroad tie than the familiar thwop of strings hitting a felt ball. Tiafoe’s serve was excellent. Shelton’s forehand return was inches away from the corner. Tiafoe scarcely made a move for it.

“Sometimes you just have to shut off the brain, close your eyes, and swing,” Shelton explained.

Shelton had the set and, for all intents and purposes, the match in the opening game of the fourth set, breaking Tiafoe’s serve and never looking back.

“Left it all out there tonight,” Shelton admitted. “Emotional battle.”

Novak Djokovic, the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion, will play in the semifinals on Friday.

“Doesn’t get any better than that,” Shelton exclaimed.

Perhaps it will.