NEW YORK — What was supposed to be a moment of celebration turned into anything but for the Tigers on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium.
Starter Matt Manning, who tossed six scoreless innings in Detroit’s 4-3 win over the Yankees in Thursday’s series finale, exited his start in the Bronx with a right foot injury after only one frame — the result of a defensive highlight that allowed him to escape a two-on, two-out jam in the first inning.
After allowing a leadoff single to DJ LeMahieu and a walk to Aaron Judge, Manning induced a groundout from Yankees prized callup Jasson Dominguez and then struck out Gleyber Torres on three pitches. That led to a matchup with Giancarlo Stanton, who hit his 400th career home run the night before.
With his second pitch of the at-bat, the 25-year-old right-hander threw a 93.2 mph fastball that Stanton launched straight back at Manning with an exit velocity of 119.5 mph, per Statcast. The rocket connected with Manning’s right foot — the same one that he fractured in April, costing him two months of the season — and then his backside before the hurler corraled it.
Manning stayed with the play, recovering to throw out Stanton at first base, but he then threw up his hands and bent over as manager A.J. Hinch and the Tigers’ medical staff came out to check on him.
Manning walked off the field under his own power, but he was replaced by reliever Beau Brieske to begin the second inning. Stanton’s comebacker had the second-highest exit velocity of any batted ball in the big leagues this season, behind only Ronald Acuña Jr.’s 121.2 mph home run for the Braves on Saturday. That one, of course, only made contact with the netting above center field at Dodger Stadium.
Entering Wednesday’s contest, Manning had allowed just one earned run (0.38 ERA) over his past four starts and put together 17 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings — the fifth-longest active streak in the Majors.