DETROIT — Tarik Skubal had already made Jasson Domínguez look overmatched twice. The best left-hander in baseball struck him out swinging in each of his first two trips, part of a stretch in which Skubal retired the Yankees in bunches and fanned seven of his final nine hitters.
Then the Yankees switch-hitter flipped the night.
Batting right-handed in the sixth inning Wednesday, Domínguez worked a nine-pitch at-bat and drove a full-count changeup 382 feet to left for a two-run homer. The drive snapped a 2-2 tie and lifted the Yankees to a 4-2 win over the Tigers at Comerica Park, clinching the three-game series.
The swing carried weight beyond the scoreboard. It was Domínguez’s first home run as a right-handed hitter this season, a direct answer to the Yankees questions that have trailed his bat against left-handed pitching.
A nine-pitch answer off the AL’s best
Skubal entered the inning in control. The two-time reigning Cy Young Award winner had struck out nine Yankees and walked none, and he had already retired Domínguez on a pair of swinging strikeouts.
The sixth began to slip when Ben Rice lined a single. That brought up Domínguez, who quickly fell behind 0-2.
He refused to chase. Domínguez fouled off three pitches and laid off three others to push the count full. On the ninth pitch, Skubal went to his changeup. The Yankees star stayed back and lifted it into the left-field seats at 101.2 mph for his third homer of the year.
‘I kept my mind right’
Domínguez did not pretend the lefty had been easy. The Yankees star described the decisive at-bat as a mental reset after two frustrating trips.
“It’s just mental, you know, trying to stay in the game. He got me the first two, but I kept my mind right, helped the team and kind of battled.”
Yankees manager Aaron Boone had a clear view of the adjustments. He watched Domínguez shorten up and time the left-hander as the at-bat stretched on.
“Look at J.D.’s at-bats today. He got dominated the first two, and even two strikes into the next at-bat, and he just keeps on competing. And as that unfolded, you saw him get on time a little bit. You saw him take a couple pitches, and he got the hanging changeup and didn’t miss it.”
The Yankees skipper needed only a few words to size up the result.
“So just a great finishing at-bat.”
Skubal rarely loses a duel like that at home, and the homer helped drop him to 3-4. He did not fault his plan so much as one pitch.
“The first five or six pitches were pretty well-executed. It was pretty well-executed at-bat, just one pitch that I probably want back, and he runs it out of the yard.”
A right-handed swing that is turning heads
The homer fit a larger trend. Domínguez has long hit better from the left side, and his right-handed swing against lefties was a glaring weakness a year ago.
That has changed this season. Against left-handed pitching, Domínguez is batting .321, going 9-for-28 with five extra-base hits, including four doubles and now the shot off Skubal. The Yankees hitter carries a .571 slugging percentage and an .893 OPS in that split.
The strides matter because of how the Yankees have deployed him. Domínguez has shared right field with Spencer Jones and has frequently drawn starts against left-handers, the very arms that exposed him in 2025.
His overall body of work is still developing. Last season Domínguez slashed .257/.331/.388 with 10 home runs and 47 RBIs over 429 plate appearances, productive but short of the ceiling that made him one of the sport’s most hyped prospects.
The win, meanwhile, kept New York rolling. At 48-31, the Yankees own the best record in the American League and lead the AL East by three games over Tampa Bay.
A crowded outfield and a deadline question
Domínguez’s progress arrives at a complicated moment. With Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger entrenched in the outfield, the Yankees have a logjam, and both Domínguez and Jones are chasing the same at-bats.
That backdrop has fueled trade chatter. According to Joel Sherman, the Yankees could use their organizational depth to address roster needs at the deadline.
Sherman pointed to several names as potential Yankees trade chips, including pitchers Will Warren and Ryan Weathers along with Domínguez and Jones.
For now, Domínguez keeps stating his case in the batter’s box. His right-handed blast off one of baseball’s elite arms was the loudest argument yet that his bat belongs, even as the front office weighs how the roster should look as the trade deadline nears.
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