For a moment, we had hope. The Yankees came back in the bottom of the ninth inning, showing exactly the kind of fight and fire that has been so absent over the last week. They closed a two-run deficit in genuinely exciting fashion. Then the floor fell out from under them, they lost their seventh straight, and suffered their second straight sweep. Tigers 6, Yankees 2 is your final in 11 innings.
Let’s start with Will Warren, and you can tell that he came in with a defined gameplan. The Tigers are a dead-red fastball hitting team, and his career-high 29 percent changeup usage was deliberate in getting Detroit hitters out in front of the plate. For the most part it worked, with 15 whiffs leading to seven strikeouts in 5.1 innings pitched. Warren is not your ace, on net you take that kind of start. It was Warren’s best start since May 31st, even if he never really seems to be driving the game in the way that certain other pitchers can just take over.
We have a couple easy takes here, stuff that’s in the dirt or on the toe, but that cluster down and just off the plate against righties should be an interesting watch in Warren’s next start. His changeup has been far better than his slider so far this season — indeed the offspeed is the only pitch besides Will’s four-seam that has a positive run value — and he’s using it just nine percent of the time. The pitches obviously have different uses but you wonder about him using today as a lesson and incorporating it into his repertoire more.
He got touched up by Kevin McGonigle for the rookie’s seventh homer of the season, and got into some trouble in the sixth allowing multiple Tigers to reach. Riley Greene brought in a second run with a sac fly ending Warren’s day, but the bullpen managed to limit damage the rest of the day. He doesn’t inspire me or make me think “dang, Warren’s on the hill, we got this,” but it was perfectly representative of a decent MLB pitcher today. The problem for most of the game was the Yankee B- lineup was about as bad today as the C lineup was yesterday.
They didn’t get their third hit until the eighth inning, a single from pinch-hitter Spencer Jones — the IV must have done its job. José Caballero followed with a single of his own to put multiple men on for the first time all game. Oswaldo Cabrera’s sac bunt was the right call, bringing Ben Rice to the plate with one out and two men in scoring position… only to go down swinging. Jasson Domínguez lined a ball to center to end the inning.
Things did pick up in the ninth, at least. Take it away, Amed Rosario:
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After that, Jazz Chisholm Jr. scored a run all by himself. Beating out an infield single, Jazz stole second and third on consecutive pitches. A pitch bounced in front of the plate gave Chisholm the chance to scamper home and we were all tied up.
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Anthony Volpe had an infield single of his own, before being tossed out trying to steal second, Spencer Jones flew out, and off to extra innings we went. Fernando Cruz managed to navigate the top of the tenth, surviving his own terrifying wild pitch to get the Yankees in the position to walk it off. Caballero’s sac bunt got Manfred Man Spencer Jones into scoring position, but neither Cabrera nor Ali Sánchez, batting after Detroit intentionally put Ben Rice on, could cash.
Enter Camilo Doval, and the Tigers put up four runs despite making two outs immediately. I don’t want to go into details because I thoroughly, thoroughly detest so many things about the person Doval is on a baseball diamond, but it involved a multitude of walks issued. I’m sure he is a pleasant dining companion and he uses his left and right turn signals but I would like him to not be on this team anymore. Sánchez added a throwing error for good measure, the team’s second of the day and 69474th of the last week.
The Yankees do not play a baseball game tomorrow, but I am somewhat convinced they will still find a way to lose. The Minnesota Twins come to town on Friday, and while that’s usually a salve for whatever ills the club, the way the team is playing right now it’s hard to get excited even about New York’s personal punching bag. First pitch of a new series comes at 7:05 p.m. Eastern Friday night.
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