Tigers 9, Yankees 3, and it was over before most of the Stadium crowd finished their first beer.
Cam Schlittler faced four batters in the top of the first. Three of them hit home runs. By the time the Yankees came to bat, they were down 4-0, and Tarik Skubal was on the mound making sure it stayed that way. Six innings, one hit, nine strikeouts later, the Tigers had themselves a series win, and the Yankees had their sixth straight loss -- the longest skid of the season.
The First Inning That Buried Them
Kerry Carpenter got it started with a solo shot to center on a 0-1 cutter. Riley Greene followed two batters later with one to right. Then Spencer Torkelson turned on a 2-2 cutter and dropped a two-run shot into the left field seats, scoring Colt Keith, and just like that Schlittler was down 4-0 without much of anything to show for it. (The Yankees dugout barely had time to process what had happened.) Schlittler didn't get a clean stretch after that either -- Greene would tag him again in the third -- and he was done after four, having faced 20 batters and allowed four home runs in that span. Four innings, seven hits, six earned runs, four home runs. Not the kind of line anybody wants next to their name in a series they were supposed to help steady.
Riley Greene Ran the Show
Credit where it's due: Greene was the best player on the field, and it wasn't close. He finished 2-for-4 with two home runs and three RBI, the first a solo shot in the opening frame, the second a two-run blast in the third off Schlittler again that scored Dillon Dingler and pushed the lead to 6-1. A Tigers left fielder having a career night against Bronx pitching isn't what anybody at the Stadium signed up for on a Tuesday.
On the other side, Skubal was even better. Six innings, one hit allowed, zero walks, nine strikeouts, 87 pitches and only 26 of them balls. The only Yankee to touch him all night was Ben Rice, whose first-inning solo homer snapped an 0-for-18 slump that had been building since June 25. Small consolation on a night like this, but Rice needed that one, and he'll take it into game 3 whether anyone else remembers it or not.
Yarbrough Compounds It
Ryan Yarbrough came on in relief and the sixth inning went about as badly as it could. James Outman turned on a first-pitch sweeper and drove a three-run shot into right-center, scoring Torkelson and Zach McKinstry and making it 9-1. That was the ballgame, for all intents and purposes (the Yankees had already used up their margin for error somewhere around the fourth pitch of the night).
The Yankees did scratch across two runs late -- a Paul Goldschmidt double-play ball that still plated Max Schuemann in the sixth, and a Jasson Domínguez single in the ninth that brought home Amed Rosario off Tyler Holton. Neither one meant much with the Tigers still up by six, and neither one is going to make the box score look any less lopsided in the morning.
A Series Already Gone
Aaron Boone didn't have many good options once Schlittler was out after four, and nothing the bullpen tried in relief changed the outcome. The loss drops the Yankees to 48-37, 2.5 games back of the first-place Rays in the AL East, and stretches the skid to six straight, a run that traces back through a four-game sweep in Boston. Detroit has clinched the series and outscored the Yankees 16-6 across the first two games, and Skubal's line tonight -- one hit allowed in six innings -- says everything about how little room the Yankees ever had.
Game 3 is tomorrow at the Stadium, and the Yankees will take it just to avoid the sweep.
Jimmy writes the Bronx Pinstripes game recap after every Yankees game. Beat-reporter pacing, fan's heartbeat. He calls opposing players by last name and has no patience for dead-air innings.
