DETROIT — CC Sabathia was grateful to be back on the mound in a regular-season game – even if it meant having to pitch in subfreezing temperatures.

“It was nice to be in a stadium with a third deck again,” he said. “That’s when you know the games count.”

Sabathia pitched into the seventh inning for New York, and Alex Rodriguez and Carlos Beltran homered in the cold to lift the Yankees to an 8-4 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Saturday. It was Sabathia’s first start in a real game since missing the postseason last year while undergoing alcohol rehabilitation. He pitched for New York during spring training but not very well.

In this one, Sabathia allowed three runs and four hits in six-plus innings, walking four and striking out three. He retired the first nine batters he faced and had only one really messy stretch, in the fourth.

The temperature at game time was 31 degrees, the coldest in Comerica Park history, according to STATS LLC.

“It’s not great weather conditions to pitch, but I think CC’s such a competitor, that’s what it tells me,” Yankees Manager Joe Girardi said. “He really wants to be out there, really relishes being out there.”

Since switching to a tighter knee brace in September, Sabathia is 3-1 with a 2.57 ERA in six starts.

Rodriguez gave the Yankees a 1-0 lead in the first with his 688th career homer, and Beltran hit a two-run shot in the fifth.

Mike Pelfrey (0-1) allowed six runs and eight hits in 32/3 innings in his first start for the Tigers after signing with Detroit in the offseason.

WHITE SOX 7, INDIANS 3: Avisail Garcia hit a three-run home run in the decisive seventh inning, ace Chris Sale overcame two home runs to stay unbeaten and host Chicago rallied past Cleveland.

Garcia, picked off first base a day earlier in a miserable home opener for the White Sox, went the opposite way off Bryan Shaw (0-1). Melky Cabrera’s nine-pitch RBI single a batter earlier put the White Sox ahead.

Jose Abreu hit a solo home run and reached base four times, while Sale (2-0) allowed three runs and six hits with six strikeouts in seven innings in Chicago’s fourth win in six games.

Sale had retired 12 straight before an infield single and Mike Napoli’s two-run homer to center in the sixth tied it. Yan Gomes’ solo shot an inning later put the Indians ahead before Chicago’s five-run seventh.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

REDS 5, PIRATES 1: Eugenio Suarez drove in three runs with a single and a homer, and ace-by-default Raisel Iglesias made another solid start as Cincinnati sent visiting Pittsburgh to its first loss.

At 4-0, Pittsburgh was off to its best start since 2003. The Pirates also had their top starter making his debut – Gerrit Cole (0-1) was pushed back in the rotation after developing a sore ribcage during spring training. He still couldn’t beat the Reds, falling to 0-5 in seven starts against them.

Suarez had an RBI single in the first and a two-run homer in the seventh – his team-leading third of the season. He also scored three times.

DODGERS 3, GIANTS 2: Madison Bumgarner hit another home run off Dodgers star Clayton Kershaw, but both aces were done by the time Charlie Culberson hit a go-ahead double in the 10th inning to lift Los Angeles to a win in San Francisco in a second straight extra-inning game in the rain.

Chris Hatcher (1-0) retired pinch-hitter Joe Panik on a called third strike to send the game into extras, then Kenley Jansen finished for his second save. The Dodgers were on the other side of a 3-2 result in 10 innings a night earlier.

Bumgarner struck out eight and Kershaw had five Ks in his eight innings for another impressive duel between the ace left-handers.