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| USA TODAY Sports |
Anthony Rizzo continues to deliver offensively Saturday afternoon, with a three-run home run to cap a four-run third inning that lifted the host New York Yankees to a 5-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers.
The Yankees have won the first two games of the three-game series and three of the last four overall.
Anthony Volpe drew a walk to open the third against Casey Mize (1-1) and Juan Soto singled before Aaron Judge doubled to score Volpe. Mize retired Alex Verdugo on a ground out and struck out Giancarlo Stanton before Rizzo homered deep into the right field bleachers on a 1-1 fastball.
Rizzo finished 2-for-4 and is hitting .333 (15-for-45) with five homers and 12 RBIs in his last 12 games dating back to April 23. He hit just .227 with one homer and eight RBI in 88 at-bats over his first 23 games of the season.
Stanton had an RBI single in the first. Judge had two hits before he was ejected by home plate umpire Ryan Blakney for arguing a called third strike in the seventh inning. It was the first ejection for Judge in 870 big league games.
Clarke Schmidt (3-1) earned the win after allowing three runs on four hits over five innings with no walks and seven strikeouts. The seven strikeouts tied a season-high for Schmidt.
A trio of relievers combined to blank the Tigers on three hits over the final four innings. Clay Holmes earned his 11th save by striking out two while getting the final four outs. Holmes has thrown 16 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings to start the season.
Riley Greene hit a homer leading off the game for the Tigers, who scored twice in the fourth when Matt Vierling laced an RBI triple. Vierling scored on Colt Keith's sacrifice fly. Vierling and Wenceel Perez had two hits apiece.
Mize gave up five runs on nine hits and one walk while striking out six over 5 1/3 innings.
