Rizzo's 3-run blast is the difference as Yankees beat frustrated Tigers

New York — The aggravation can pile up in a hurry in this sport.

The Tigers came into this series against the Yankees having won four out of five games and four straight series and all five road series this season. But two tough losses later and the postgame clubhouse was tomb silent.

"Obviously frustrating," Matt Vierling said after the Tigers were beaten by the Yankees 5-3 Saturday at Yankee Stadium. "Sometimes things like that happen. We recognize that as a team and all we can do is work to be better when the next opportunity comes up."

On Friday, the Tigers were walked off in the bottom of the ninth by a single by Anthony Rizzo. On Saturday, the difference in the game was a three-run home run by Rizzo in a four-run third inning. And in both losses, the club struggled to create or sustain any offense.

Riley Greene led off the game with his eighth homer of the season, a towering blast into the seats in right field, and Vierling tripled in a run and scored a run in the fourth. That was it. The Tigers managed to get just one runner to second base against the Yankees back-end relievers Luke Weaver and Clay Holmes.

And by the end of the game, both sides were beefing about home plate umpire Ryan Blakney's strike zone. Blakney ejected Yankees slugger Aaron Judge in the seventh inning for arguing a call that the Statcast strike zone box showed just off the outside edge.

"Apparently Aaron did not agree with the pitch and said something that you shouldn't have said and he was ejected," crew chief Alan Porter said through a pool reporter. "We do what we can to keep guys in the game but he said something he shouldn't have said."

There was a large (45,017) and loud crowd in the Bronx and it got on Blakney hard. And in the top of the eighth, the Tigers had their beef with Blakney. He wrung up called third strikes against Mark Canha, Kerry Carpenter and Vierling. The pitches to Carpenter and Vierling showed up outside the Statcast strike zone box.

"It's just how baseball is," Vierling said. "There are some calls that are good, some are on the border and really, if it's close you want to swing at it. I'm not going to complain about the zone or anything like that. Looking back on the game, we just want some opportunities back and not focus on the other stuff."

For Tigers' starter Casey Mize, the frustration was not being able to collect the third out fast enough in two innings. The Yankees strung together three straight hits and scored a run in the first. And in the third, Mize was two strikes from limiting damage to one run.

"It's frustrating, but I put myself in a bad spot," he said. "I almost wriggled out of it and he hits a homer. It's frustrating that I didn't give us a chance to win. That's the most frustrating thing. That's what I try to do every time out and today I didn't do that."

Mize walked Anthony Volpe to lead off the third and then Juan Soto slammed a single to right, past a diving Spencer Torkelson, who was holding Volpe on at first. Mize then jammed Judge with a pitch but he muscled it into left field for an RBI double. That made it 2-0.

Mize got Alex Verdugo to ground out and then struck out Giancarlo Stanton, holding the runners at second and third. Rizzo, though, didn’t let him wriggle off the hook. He drove a 1-1 heater 411 feet, way beyond the short wall in right field.

"It was an executed pitch," Mize said. "He handles the ball there (up and in). The pitch before I sailed a splitter so he was probably sitting on heater there. But I threw it exactly where we were trying to. He was looking for it and he handles that pitch, but I feel like if the pitch before was better, that pitch gets better results."

Mize locked back in. He set down seven of the next eight hitters and put up zeros in the fourth and fifth and got one out in the sixth while the Tigers tried to claw back into the game. But it was a rough outing for him. The Yankees put 19 balls in play in 5.1 innings and produced nine hits and an average exit velocity of 94 mph.

"I did some good things, but the big inning killed us," Mize said. "I'll have time to think about the good and things I need to continue to work on, but right now it's just disappointment."

BOX SCORE: Yankees 5, Tigers 3

Lastly, there was nobody more anguished in the building Saturday than Torkelson. In the throes of a 6-for-44 slump and still searching for his first homer of the year, he struck out his first two times up, flew out to right to end the Tigers' last threat of the game in the sixth and hit into a fast double-play in the ninth.

"If anybody goes through it the way he is and isn't frustrated, they don't have a pulse," Hinch said. "This has been a tough time for him. We know it and we're supporting him. He's got to fight his way out of it. And he will. But when you are going through it, it feels like it's endless."

Hard game.

Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com

@cmccosky