Detroit Tigers 4 — New York Yankees 3 (12 innings)
Seven Yankees pitchers took the mound in tonight’s extra inning loss.
In the second of two days, the Yankees would take on a former Cy Young winner. Tonight, 2012 Cy Young winner David Price took the mound for his new team, the Detroit Tigers. For the Yankees, Hiroki Kuroda would get the task of trying to match zeroes. Kuroda has had a noticeably difficult time with the first inning and tonight would be no different.
Rajai Davis and Miguel Cabrera would sandwich a pair of singles around an out. Victor Martinez would bring home the first run of the game on a sacrifice fly.
The Yankees would get to Price in the third inning and it would be a familiar occurrence from this season. Brian McCann, in his first season in the American League, would take David Price deep for the third time this season. The solo home run tied the game at one. In the fourth inning, the bottom of the order would spark the offense as Brendan Ryan hit a deep double to left field and with two outs, Jacoby Ellsbury would hit a double that put the Yankees ahead. Martin Prado would get his first home run as a member of the Yankees in the fifth inning and with his solo home run, the Yankees had a two-run lead.
Meanwhile, Hiroki Kuroda bounced back from the rough 17-pitch first inning with 14 straight outs until the sixth inning.
Andrew Romine would take Kuroda deep to snap his consecutive out streak and put the Yankees lead to one. Kuroda would get the next three outs but a shift-defying single by Victor Martinez would set into motion the tying run. After Martinez’s single to open the seventh inning, Kuroda would get the next two outs but the third out would be a problem. Third baseman Nick Castellanos hit a single and Alex Avila plated the tying run with a single of his own. Hiroki Kuroda would get the last out but the damage was done.
In seven innings, Hiroki Kuroda allowed three runs on six hits while walking none and striking out five. Kuroda threw 91 pitches and there could be a case that he should have exited the game a batter earlier to prevent the tying run from scoring.
The first of many relievers out of the Yankees bullpen would be Dellin Betances. The Yankees All-Star reliever had the task of getting Miguel Cabrera out in his first inning of work. After getting the first out and a strikeout for the second, Betances would finish the at-bat with Cabrera with a 100 MPH fastball. The strikeout of Cabrera was the 100th of his remarkable season.
Betances would start the ninth inning with the game still tied but would exit after hitting Torii Hunter in the hand with an 85 MPH breaking ball that would force Hunter from the game. Shawn Kelley would be the second reliever out of the bullpen and he finished off the ninth inning.
The return of Joba Chamberlain would start with two outs in the ninth inning. With Ichiro Suzuki on second base after pinch-running for Carlos Beltran and stealing second base, Martin Prado would strikeout against Joba and the signature fist pump that Yankees fans cheered for, they were now on the wrong side of it.
In David Price’s Tigers debut, he went 8.2 innings and allowed three runs on eight hits while walking none and striking out 10.
The third and fourth relievers for the Yankees, David Huff and Esmil Rogers, would complete the 10th inning. Esmil Rogers, the debuting Rich Hill and Matt Daley, relievers five and six, respectively, would combine for the 11th inning and continued to keep the game tied. The blink in the tie game standoff would occur with one out in the 12th inning when Matt Daley gave up the go-ahead home run to Alex Avila. Struggling closer Joe Nathan would finish off the Yankees despite a deep fly out by Chase Headley and the Yankees lost a close game despite having the lead.
*In the 10th inning, Joba Chamberlain went head-to-head with Derek Jeter which was met with some comical results, prior to a pitch being thrown. The former Yankees pitcher greeted the Captain’s traditional nod of the head by sticking out his tongue, somewhere in his large beard. The matchup would result in a pitch hitting Jeter but obviously done without intent and met with remorse by Chamberlain.
*Brian McCann’s three home runs against David Price makes him one of two players to achieve such a feat. The other player is Angels’ first baseman Albert Pujols.
Win – Joakim Soria (2-4)
Loss – Matt Daley (0-1)
Save – Joe Nathan (23)
Notables
Tigers
*Alex Avila – 2 for 5, R, Solo Home Run (8) in the 12th, 2 RBI (31)
*Andrew Romine – 1 for 5, R, Solo Home Run (2) in the 6th, RBI (7)
Yankees
*Martin Prado – 2 for 5, R, 2B, Solo Home Run (6) in the 5th, RBI (43)
*Brian McCann – 1 for 5, R, Solo Home Run (12) in the 2nd, RBI (47)
Current Yankees Record: 58-54
