DETROIT — When one pitch is all it takes to flip a game on its head, who better to drive home that point than Aaron Judge?

The Yankees had collected just four hits when their captain stepped to the plate in the eighth inning and connected on his 44th home run of the season. He made this one look just as easy as most of the rest, parking the 2-2 sinker a Statcast-projected 431 feet away into the ivy-covered wall in straightaway center field during New York’s 3-0 win against the Tigers in the series opener at Comerica Park.

Judge, who on Wednesday reached the 300-homer plateau faster than any player in AL/NL history, sits just 18 homers shy of the AL-record 62 he set in 2022, with 39 games to play in the regular season.

Oswald Peraza also hit a solo homer in his season debut, and Alex Verdugo got the offense started with a sacrifice fly in the first inning as New York won its third straight game. Depending on the outcome of the Orioles’ late game against the Red Sox, the Yankees retained at least a tie with Baltimore for first place in the American League East.

Gerrit Cole wasn’t cushioned with a big lead, but he didn’t need one, either. Cole put together another sparkling outing with eight strikeouts over six scoreless innings. He allowed just four hits, all singles, and walked two to move to 4-2 on the season and lower his ERA in August to 2.45 across three starts.