The New York Yankees suffered an embarrassing sweep by the second-worst AL team, the Detroit Tigers. The Yankees not only lost the game, but the Tigers swept the Yankees in all three games.
Yesterday the starting and relief pitching failed, and those pitchers got no support from the non-hitting lineup. The Yankees have lacked hitting in all but a few games this season. The only reason they are not at the bottom of the AL is that the starting pitching before this weekend has been, for the most part, stellar, led by New York Yankee ace Gerrit Cole. A discouraging takeaway from yesterday’s game was not only did the team fail from poor pitching and hitting, but they also made several errors playing like a team without a focus on winning.
Michael King went only 2.1 innings
With the loss of 2 times Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber with a shoulder injury that will keep him from pitching for as long as two months, the Yankees brought up Deivi Garcia and Michael King to aid in the starting pitching. Garcia started Saturday’s game, pitched poorly, and prevented the Yankees from any chance of taking the series from the Detroit Tigers. Yesterday King took the mound and pitched even worse. He allowed four runs in 2.1 innings before Aaron Boone had seen enough.
Also called up, Nestor Cortes Jr. replaced King. Cortes Jr. went 3.2 innings giving up another two runs and putting the game out of reach for the Yankees. Nick Nelson replaced him, pitching a scoreless inning, but it was too late. Both King and Cortes Jr. seemed to have no command of their pitches, and the Tiger hitters took advantage of it, scoring six runs against Yankee pitching.
The Yankees continue to lack timely hitting
The Yankees have been dogged by a lack of hitting in most games this season, and this weekend was a perfect example of it. A slight difference was that the Yankees did get 9 hits but continued their lack of timely hitting, not bringing those runners home. Over the three games, the New York Yankees were 2-25, with runners in scoring position. The Yankees left the bases full with no outs in the game. According to the YES Network’s Michael Kay, the last time the team played this badly was 11 straight games in July of 1991. The team also hit into their 51st baseball leading ground ball double play.
The Detroit Tigers have not swept the Yankees in the last 21 years. The Yankees did come alive in the eighth, scoring two runs, but it was too little too late as the Yankees lost the game 6-2. Playing this badly against a team they should have swept does not spell well for the upcoming two series at Yankee Stadium when they play the best two teams in the AL East. The Yankees will have to find a way to pitch well and hit well as this upcoming week could be a turning point that will not allow the Yankees to recover. As of yesterday, the Yankees have scored 2 or fewer runs in 20 games.
The Yankees can’t have sloppy play
Yesterday was the Yankees’ poorest display of professional ball this season. The team officially made three errors that allowed four runs to score. Gleyber Torres made two of those errors in the same inning and showed his frustrating by beating up the dugout at the end of the inning.
But beyond the official errors, the Yankees made several mistakes that were not errors. The Yankees also got caught up in this 26th baserunning mistake that leads all of baseball. In the eighth inning. In a bonehead move, Gary Sanchez, getting a grounding single, the Tigers threw the return beyond the first baseman. Sanchez decided to go for two, then turned back to first and yet another turn to second like a dear in the headlights; he finally made a run for it and was called out at second.