Carlos Rodon turns in shortest start of season as Yankees bats flounder in shutout loss to Tigers

DETROIT — The closest battle Saturday afternoon at Comerica Park was who it was more of a slog for: Carlos Rodon or his offense?

Rodon’s run of good starts hit quicksand in an inefficient outing while the Yankees bats sleepwalked through a 4-0 loss to the Tigers.

In his shortest outing of the season, Rodon gave up four runs across 3 ¹/₃ innings while needing 90 pitches to record 10 outs.

But even if he had been sharper, the Yankees’ lack of offense was the bigger problem as they were held to just four hits — three of them singles, two from Oswaldo Cabrera — while getting shut down by Keider Montero and the Tigers bullpen.

Montero, the rookie right-hander, entered Saturday with a 5.76 ERA across his first 10 games (nine starts) in the big leagues, but he tossed five scoreless innings against the Yankees (73-51) while giving up just two hits and two walks while striking out five.

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“Whoever they’ve had out there — [Friday] night even, too, we hit a couple balls out of the ballpark, but into today, they’ve held us down, flat-out,” manager Aaron Boone said. “We didn’t mount much today at all. It’s a team that’s been doing a pretty good job of limiting runs, especially lately and doing it in creative ways. But we just got flat beat on the pitching side today and it doesn’t get any easier [Sunday]. We’ve got to turn the page and get after it.”

The teams are scheduled to play the rubber game of the series on Sunday night in Williamsport for the Little League Classic — with the Tigers (60-64) starting AL Cy Young candidate Tarik Skubal — though a bad forecast threatens to push that back to Monday at Comerica Park.

Through the first two games of the series, the Yankees have been limited to just nine hits while they were shut out on Saturday for the seventh time this season.

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Before the ninth inning, when Aaron Judge led off with a double — the Yankees’ sole extra-base hit of the day — they had gotten into scoring position only once, which came in the second inning, when they put runners on the corners with two outs for Ben Rice, who flew out to end the threat.

“You gotta expect that out of everybody,” Giancarlo Stanton said of Montero’s strong outing. “It’s our job to control the zone and pound him no matter what the previous ERA was.”

Boone said he did not have any issue with the quality of at-bats the Yankees took on Saturday.

“We understand the importance of it and I think guys were hooked up,” Boone said. “We just weren’t our best today, period.”

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That included Rodon, who allowed all four of his runs with two outs.

The left-hander had been strong of late, posting a 2.22 ERA in four starts after the All-Star break entering Saturday, but he fell victim to plenty of long at-bats against the Tigers.

They forced him to throw 36 pitches in a three-run second inning and 30 more in a scoreless third, and while he only walked one, he reached six full counts and had 24 of his pitches fouled off.

“Just didn’t have that A-plus stuff,” Rodon said. “I was trying to go out there and compete and I need to be better than that. That was tough, putting the boys down 4-0 after the second.”

Having the Tigers foul off pitch after pitch only built the frustration for Rodon, who blamed himself for letting those emotions show.

“I was a little reactive to some of the foul balls — I’d like to keep that inward and just go out there and compete and make the next pitch,” Rodon said. “It’s something I can be better at, for sure. Wasting energy on guys putting up good at-bats and showing my hand is something I need to be better at.”

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