New York — Road warriors?
“I’ll take that,” Spencer Torkelson said Thursday, after his two-homer, four-RBI night sent the Tigers to a 10-3 romp over the Yankees in the series finale at Yankee Stadium.
The Tigers went 4-2 on this two-city trip and, despite being 13 games under .500 overall, are 35-36 on the road.
“I feel like we’re a better team than our record indicates,” manager AJ Hinch said. “But our record indicates the results and that’s who we are. But I do think we are comfortable playing in any environment against any team.”
The win snapped an eight-game losing streak at Yankee Stadium dating to April, 2021.
“I don’t know if there’s a reason why we’re better on the road,” said Matt Vierling, who also had a monster day with four hits, four runs and two RBI hitting at the top of the order. “I don’t really have a reason for it. But it doesn’t matter.”
Torkelson put on a New York-sized power show Thursday. He even impressed veteran lefty Eduardo Rodriguez, who took the run support and cashed in his 11th win of the season.
“Every time he goes up to bat, you think he’s going to hit a homer,” Rodriguez said. “That’s the kind of year he’s been having and I love it. I loved seeing him hit all year and I just want him to finish strong.”
BOX SCORE: Tigers 10, Yankees 3
It was Torkelson’s fifth multi-homer game of the season. He hit a two-run shot in the first inning, just clearing the wall in right field. He hit another two-run shot in the fourth, this one a bullet inside the foul pole in left.
In between, he hit a 401-foot fly out to center.
“I figured center field didn’t work,” Torkelson said, laughing.
Three at-bats, 1,137 feet of launch with exit velocities of 99, 105.6 and 109.4 mph.
“It’s tough to hit, so you want to ride the hot streaks as long as possible and eliminate the cold streaks,” Torkelson said. “It’s all about getting back to my plan, my approach and my process…It’s more fun when you homer in a win. And this has been a little more rewarding than usual just feeling myself trust the process when I’m not feeling great and just showing up and getting a hit and walk.
“Those days can feel just as good as a two-homer day.”
Torkelson’s team-leading 27 homers is the tied with Willie Horton for the third most by a Tiger in his age-23 season.
“I just like the way he is taking the success and running with it,” Hinch said. “He’s not making too much of this and he’s not making too much of some of the tough at-bats. He has the same process and he’s staying even-keeled. He’s developing nicely.
“We asked for patience and we’re starting to get rewarded with the power we all knew he had.”
The bulk of the damage came at the expense of Yankees’ lefty Carlos Rodon, a pitcher who had bullied the Tigers with his fastball in his five previous starts against them, going 4-0 with a 1.86 ERA.
The Tigers attacked his heater from the start Thursday. In the first three innings, Vierling doubled in both the first and third innings, both off 95-mph heaters.
“Right from the first pitch I felt like we were on it,” Vierling said. “He kind of features his fastball a lot and showing that we could hit that tonight made him go to a couple of other pitches.”
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Vierling left the game in the eighth inning after a pickoff throw to first caromed off his right elbow. He had it wrapped afterward and Hinch said he was scheduled to be off Friday regardless.
“It’s not broken,” Vierling said. “But it’s throbbing. That ball got me pretty good but I will be all right.”
Andy Ibanez also had a big night with two hits, including his 10th home run of the season, a sacrifice fly and four RBI.
“The fastball is kind of (Rodon’s) bread and butter,” said Torkelson, whose first two rockets were off Rodon’s fastball. He hit his second homer off right-handed reliever Randy Vasquez. “So when you can really focus on a guy’s best pitch and trust your eyes on his secondary stuff, for me, it makes the approach that much easier and simple.”
Rodon, whom the Yankees signed for six years and $162 million, left to a chorus of boos with two outs in the fourth, having been tagged for seven runs and eight hits. The Tigers put 12 of his fastballs in play with an average exit velocity of 96.1 mph.
“Tork is starting to find his stride,” Vierling said. “He’s seems like he’s starting to get confident in who he is and what he can do. It always takes time. We’re all young and we all go through struggles. But at the end of the day, he kept working, he kept grinding and it’s starting to pay off. He’s a special talent.”
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter/X: @cmccosky