NEW YORK — The boos came early and stayed late. By the time Cam Schlittler walked off in the fifth inning Tuesday night, the 37,211 fans at Yankee Stadium had already turned on a team that has given them little else to do. The Yankees lost 9-3 to the Detroit Tigers, and the sound of their own crowd was the fitting soundtrack to a sixth straight defeat.
The loss deepened a slide that has become historic for its futility. The Yankees have not led a game since last Thursday in Boston, a full turn through their rotation without an advantage.
This one was supposed to be different. It matched two of the best pitchers in baseball, with Schlittler and his major-league-best ERA against Tigers ace Tarik Skubal. The duel lasted one inning.
Detroit hit three home runs with two outs in the first, and the rout was on.
The Yankees, now 48-37, have dropped a season-high six in a row and slid further behind in the American League East. The offense has reached depths the franchise has never seen, the pitching cracked at the worst time, and the home crowd has run out of patience. What began as a rough week has hardened into something the team cannot explain away.
A first inning that ended the drama
Schlittler retired the first two Tigers, then everything unraveled. Kerry Carpenter drove a two-out fly to deep center, where Spencer Jones reached the wall, leaped and got his glove above the fence. The ball landed in the glove, and the crowd cheered, before it bounced out as Jones hit the wall and dropped into the home bullpen for a home run.
The near-robbery turned into the first of many blows. Schlittler threw 27 more pitches in the inning, surrendering home runs to Riley Greene and Spencer Torkelson. By the time the frame ended, the Yankees trailed 4-0, a deficit that felt far larger given how the bats have looked.
Greene added a second homer in the fourth, giving Detroit four off Schlittler in three innings. The right-hander, who entered with an AL-best 1.62 ERA, was charged with six runs on four homers over four innings, the worst start of his standout season. His ERA jumped to 2.08.
Schlittler did not hide from it afterward.
“We are just not playing good ball right now,” Schlittler said. “It’s my job to come in here and try to stop that bleeding, and I couldn’t get that done.”
An offense in uncharted territory
The bigger crisis remains the lineup. Ben Rice homered in the first, then Skubal retired 13 straight. The Yankees managed one hit against him over six innings, and only a pair of two-out singles in the ninth spared them further embarrassment, doubling their total to four hits.
The numbers are staggering. Over their last five games, the Yankees have 16 hits, the fewest in any five-game span in franchise history. They are the first major-league team since at least 1898 to lose all five games in a span while striking out at least 45 times and hitting under .105, according to Katie Sharp.
They also nearly made a different kind of history. The Yankees came within an inning of becoming the first team since 1900 to record three or fewer hits in five straight games, avoiding it only with the late singles. Against starting pitching over the five losses, they are 8-for-107, a .075 average with 38 strikeouts.
Rice, whose 23 home runs are tied for fifth in the majors, searched for an explanation.
“We know we have the talent,” Rice said. “But it’s such a long season. A lot of times, individually, we go through ups and downs. Sometimes the downs last a little longer than we’d like. It just so happens that right now it’s kind of like the whole team is going through something at once.”
Mistakes pile up in the field
The defense did Schlittler no favors. Spencer Jones’ leaping attempt at the wall in the first inning ended with the ball bouncing out of his glove and over the fence for a Kerry Carpenter home run, a near-robbery that instead opened the scoring.
The sloppiness continued in the sixth. Jose Caballero botched a potential double-play ball, a miscue that immediately preceded a three-run homer and blew the game open. It was the kind of play a team in a tailspin cannot afford, and it turned a bad night into a rout.
The errors have become a theme during the slide. The Yankees have repeatedly undercut their own pitching with shaky defense, and Tuesday added another chapter, with the home crowd groaning at each miscue.
Anthony Volpe said the mood in the room reflects the results.
“It’s difficult, but all we can do is show up tomorrow and get to work,” Volpe said. “Everyone’s pissed.”
He described a lineup pressing to break out, each hitter trying so hard to be the spark that the at-bats have suffered.
“We’re all trying to have good at-bats and put stuff together, and when you want to do it so badly, you probably press,” Volpe said. “And it feels like, as an offense, we’re pressing.”
A team searching for answers
According to New York Yankees Stats, they are the first MLB team since at least 1898 to lose all five games in a five-game span while striking out at least 45 times and hitting under .105.
The skid has now reached six straight losses. Over their last five games, the Yankees have managed only 16 hits, the lowest total over any five-game stretch in franchise history. They have also been held to three hits in each of their last four games, marking the first time a Yankees team has done that in a single season.
Their struggles continued into the ninth inning, with only two hits on the night. The Yankees also have not held a lead since last Thursday in Boston, meaning they have gone through a full trip in the rotation without playing from ahead. Katie Sharp noted that the 2026 Yankees are the only MLB team since at least 1898 to have a five-game span with zero wins, 45-plus strikeouts and 16 or fewer hits.
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