Rony Garcia and Miguel Cabrera were fine. The rest of the team not so much
The Tigers struggled in that game, but continued sloppy play in key situations missed a brave start from Rony Garcia and squandered a couple of comebacks when the Yankees beat them in the 10th inning. completes 5-4 sweep on Sunday.
At least the Tigers’ young starters continue to impress. While Elvin Rodriguez was beaten by his defense and some slanting with runners on base on Friday, Beau Brieske put on a strong performance on Saturday. The offense couldn’t take advantage of it and we saw a lot of that, but the work of the Tigers’ pitching coaches and their youngsters was excellent. Rony Garcia made the point again on Sunday with a solid performance.
I was wondering in preview if right-hander Rony Garcia might try to shake off the Yankees with a big dose of curveballs and changeups early in this game. Instead, exactly the opposite was planned. Garcia used a large number of four-seam fastballs in the first inning, letting leadoff hitter D.J. LeMahieu, far to open the bottom of the first. Aaron Judge drilled a line drive that Derek Hill handled in midfield, and after starting with fastballs on Anthony Rizzo, Yankees first baseman freaked out in a changeup for a routine groundout.
In the second, the Tigers’ injury train got a little longer. Josh Donaldson started the second inning with a shot that went past Jeimer Candelario and deflected into foul territory. Candelario injured his shoulder in the attempt and was unable to regain the ball. Javy Baez tracked him down in bad territory as Donaldson moved up to second and Candelario went down in obvious pain. Harold Castro had to take over at third base.
Impressively, Rony Garcia was undeterred and took matters into his own hands. He knocked out Gleyber Torres with a fastball, then tied Aaron Hicks in a knot with a curveball before taking Isiah Kiner-Falefa out of the inning for the final. That’s a great job from a pitcher who really isn’t much more than a rookie.
As usual, the Tigers didn’t do much offensively. Miguel Cabrera hit a single to lead the second and Daz Cameron then doubled with two outs, but Eric Haase struck to end the threat. The kittens quietly left in the third.
A small defense in the outfield was eye candy at the end of the inning. LeMahieu went into left field with two outs and Judge isolated. LeMahieu tried to go from first to third, but Willi Castro hit Harold Castro in third to stop him and end the inning.
Finally, the Tigers opened the scoring in the fourth. Miguel Cabrera went with an out and scored when Baez hit a drive into left midfield to hit Miggy from the start. Harold Castro landed on the floor but Daz Cameron returned to the area and scored Baez from second place. Eric Haase closed to finish the inning.
Garcia made the go-ahead stick by lining up Rizzo, Donaldson and Torres with flyballs at the end of the fourth, but at the end of the fifth the Yankees tied it courtesy of Joey Gallo. Kiner-Falefa was able to boast with an out, but the Tigers appeared to have beaten Jose Treviño and Kiner-Falefa was second out trying to steal. Review canceled the call on the field and the Yankees shortstop was safe. Gallo made it count with a double homer from a sinker on the outside edge of the zone.
Cabrera prevailed again with an out at the top of sixth place, but Baez bounced back with a double.
In the bottom half, Alex Lange replaced Rony Garcia and threw a clean inning with three groundouts. Garcia’s outing ended with 5.0 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, BB, 4 SO. Only 46 out of 71 pitches for strikes, but he didn’t waste too many either, just moving forward and trying to expand the zone. Overall, his mastery of fastball was pretty good on this one, and the Yankees struggled to make the switch to righties.
The Tigers led Eric Haase to the top of seventh, but no more when Clarke Schmidt replaced starter Jordan Montgomery.The two starters had fairly even days on the mound, both pitching well, although Montgomery delved deeper into the game.
A.J. Hinch tried to extend Lange a second inning, but it didn’t go well. Torres greeted him with a single, and after Hicks flew into midfield, Kiner-Falefa played Báez, who derailed the game by not realizing Torres came onto field and was already on second base.This error resulted in a run when Lange left with Matt Carpenter to load the bases. He knocked out Joey Gallo but then went in four straight pitches with LeMahieu to force the go-ahead. A rather atypical considering how it’s lined up this season.
Michael Fulmer came on for Lange and shared Judge with two power sliders and a fastball for a sweeping third shot. The Yankees were leading 3-2 and time was running out.
However, the Tigers didn’t want to leave. Willi Castro led from the top of eighth place with a double into right field. Spencer Torkelson struck and then Miguel Castro came in for Clarke Schmidt and beat Jonathan Schoop but once again Miguel Cabrera scored in the middle and hit Castro. Cabrera continues to do so, now reaching .288 and pushing for .300 with a three-hit game plus a walk in it.
Kody Clemens scored for Miggy and finished second on a wild pitch. Baez then hit right field on a spinning groundout and scored Clemens, but Baez can’t seem to do anything right without returning it and was eliminated trying to turn it into a double when Castro clipped Gallo’s pitch and Baez land caught in No Man’s. Still, Tigres 4-3 with two innings to go.
Unfortunately, the Tigers took the lead in the bottom half of the round of 16. Fulmer beat Rizzo to open the inning but beat Donaldson. Rizzo then stole second base and advanced to third after Jonathan Schoop made a mistake on Eric Haase’s throw. Torres then ended up in third place, but Harold Castro fumbled the ball wide when Rizzo scored to level the game. Fulmer summoned Hicks and then issued a free pass to Kiner-Falefa. That turned out to be smart, as catcher Kyle Higashioka flew to end the threat and send it into the ninth inning, all 4-4.
The Yankees passed the stuff to Wandy Peralta in the top of the ninth. Harold Castro easily hit Peralta for the first out on the first baseline. Daz Cameron busted and Eric Haase landed in third for a fast inning. Not ideal and it would be up to Gregory Soto to keep the result in the bottom half of the ninth.
Soto knocked out Giancarlo Stanton with the first out of the inning. LeMahieu struggled and eventually drilled a line drive to midfield, but Derek Hill was there to carry it. That led Aaron Judge into a power-on-power clash. Soto went more to the slider for Judge, starting with a slider for a ball, a 99 mph heater for a called strike, and then two more sliders for a ball and a swing strike. Soto missed ball three with a 100-mile heater and completed the count but returned with 101 down as the crowd at Yankee Stadium stood up expecting a hit that sent Judge flying with a swing for the third shot.
The tenth opened with Haase in second place. The Yankees went with Michael King, who has been dominant this season. Derek Hill struck out trying to mark the runner for the first out while Willi Castro and Spencer Torkelson looked utterly amused and both went down quickly. Pretty bad in a late game situation with a running back that started in the scoring position and you don’t even move it. Only bad at bats, although King is certainly dirty.
Soto had to try and give the Tigers another chance by pinning the Yankees at the bottom of 10th.
It didn’t work. Anthony Rizzo did what he was supposed to do and just put a ball on the floor, with a single between Baez and Schoop, the latter simply knocking the ball down to stop Judge, who started second, at third base. All the Yankees needed was a fly ball, and they got it when Donaldson flew into the wall in left field and Judge ran home with the playoff winner.
That’s a hit, folks.The Tigers will get a much-needed day off Monday before traveling to Pittsburgh for games on Tuesday and Wednesday. With Candelario likely to be out for a while and Austin Meadows and Riley Greene on the verge of joining from Toledo, you should be looking for some serious roster rebalancing this week.
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