Tigers 10 – Yankees 8
Around here, no points are awarded for comebacks that fall short.
So don’t praise the Yankees for making a game out of yesterday’s 10-8 loss in front of 50,338 at the Stadium. That’s because for most of the splendid summer afternoon, they stunk.
Brad Halsey and Bret Prinz were awful. Alex Rodriguez made a throwing error that led to two unearned runs. The runner Felix Heredia inherited scored. Jason Giambi and John Flaherty couldn’t get together on a foul pop. And the Yankees didn’t take advantage when Pudge Rodriguez, the leading hitter in the majors, was ejected in the first inning.
All of that negated a five-run Yankees seventh highlighted by A-Rod’s three-run homer.
With Yankees starters getting punished in four of the past five games, GM Brian Cashman’s task to upgrade the rotation is daunting. There isn’t much available with Randy Johnson off the block. Then, the Yankees may not have enough to trade for what is available.
At one point, Halsey was a chip to be used in a deal. Now the 23-year-old lefty with a 1-2 record and 7.23 ERA likely is on his way to Triple-A Columbus so the Yankees can get some bullpen help for the weekend.
In his fourth big-league start, Halsey gave up seven runs (five earned) in 4 1/3 innings. Prinz worked an inning in which he gave up three runs and two hits.
Halsey’s outing wouldn’t be so alarming if it didn’t follow Mike Mussina getting spanked Tuesday night, Javier Vazquez’s ineffective outing Sunday against the Mets, and Jose Contreras getting smoked by the Mets on Saturday. Mussina also was hit hard last Friday night.
“We are riding a bad wave right now; it’s a bad stretch, that’s all,” Cashman said. “I wouldn’t judge us on a small sample.”
Kevin Brown’s return has to help, but nobody seems to know exactly when that will be. Orlando Hernandez is coming after the All-Star break, but he is 34 and hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since 2002 due to shoulder surgery. Kris Benson and Jamie Moyer don’t excite the Yankees, Odalis Perez is on the disabled list, Russ Ortiz isn’t available, and the Yankees wonder why Anaheim, which needs pitching and is the favorite if Johnson agrees to a trade, has been dangling Jarrod Washburn.
Naturally, nobody in the Yankees clubhouse sounded alarmed. Their fifth loss in six games shaved their AL East lead over the Red Sox to six games after their victory over Oakland last night.
“I didn’t help,” A-Rod said when asked if he was concerned about the starting pitching. “I threw a dead fish to first. It all starts with pitching and defense.”
A-Rod’s seventh error led to a 3-0 Tigers lead that became 3-2 in the second on Hideki Matsui’s 16th homer, a two-run shot off winner Jeremy Bonderman (6-6). Rondell White’s RBI double upped the Tigers’ advantage to 4-2 in the third, and Carlos Guillen’s three-run homer in fifth, and three more runs in the sixth when Craig Monroe homered made it 10-3.
A-Rod’s 21st homer, Derek Jeter’s RBI single and Enrique Wilson’s run-scoring double produced five runs in the seventh to make it a two-run game. When Jorge Posada singled with one out in the eighth, the Yankees had a chance to make an ugly day end nicely, but Ruben Sierra was fanned by Ugueth Urbina and Kenny Lofton flied out to center.
Urbina gave up a two-out single to A-Rod in the ninth but ended it by inducing Giambi to ground out to second for the final out of a dreadful day.
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Tigers’ tale
The Yankees lost a home series to the Tigers for the first time since Aug. 9-11, 1996. Here’s a look at some numbers since then:
AT HOME VS. TIGERS
9-1-3 Series record
29-10 Overall record
250 Yankees runs
153 Tigers runs
THIS SERIES VS. TIGERS
0-1 Series record
1-2 Overall record
19 Yankees runs
22 Tigers runs
OVERALL VS. TIGERS
16-6-1 Series record
51-26 Overall record
460 Yankees runs
323 Tigers runs