The weekend series is here, and brings with it the New York Yankees, with Aaron Judge fresh off clobbering his 300th career home run, and the Bronx Bombers hungry for the postseason, it was going to be a challenging series for the Tigers.
They were depending on another bullpen game up against Gerrit Cole, which is certainly a choice (but not much you can do when you’ve sold half your pitching).
Let’s see how it went.
Beau Brieske was the first pitcher out for the Tigers and it went poorly for him almost immediately. Gleyber Torres singled, but then advanced to second thanks to some sloppy fielding from Parker Meadows. Juan Soto then walked, and Giancarlo Stanton walked to load it up with only one out. An Alex Verdugo sac fly scored Torres. Brieske finished off the inning without any other runs scoring, but it wasn’t great. The Tigers were 1-2-3 in the home half.
Brenan Hanifee was next out of the bullpen, and continued the walking trend by walking Jose Trevino. Trevino then stole second. Thankfully three outs in a row kept him from getting home. Newbie Jace Jung took his first free bag with a one-out walk in the home half. Two outs, however, kept him stranded.
The Yankees went 1-2-3 in the third. Parker Meadows singled in the bottom half, then successfully stole second. But the Tigers were not able to bring him home.
Brant Hurter, a real name for a real reliever, replaced Hanifee, and got the Yankees out in order. For the Tigers, Jung walked again, but got a bit bold stealing second, and was tagged out (though the original call was safe, it was overturned).
In the fifth, Oswald Peraza hit a one-out solo home run. Torres doubled, but the Yankees would have to settle for one run. The Tigers went down in order in the home half.
The Yankees were hitless again in the top of the sixth, but the Tigers started putting something together in the bottom of the inning. Kerry Carpenter got a one-out single, Matt Vierling followed with a single of his own, then both advanced on a Bligh Madris groundout. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to bring them in.
Jose Trevino doubled to start the seventh, but three outs quickly ended the inning. Cole’s day was over and Luke Weaver came out in relief. With two outs, rookie debut Trey Sweeney got his first major league hit.
Jake Rogers then reached on a fielding error from Anthony Volpe, who just… dropped the ball, and Sweeney got all the way to third. Rogers advanced to second on a passed ball. Even with the bonus luck and two runners in scoring position, though, the Tigers were not able to score any runs.
In the eighth, Aaron Judge did that thing he does best, and hit a one-out solo home run. in the bottom half, Tommy Kahnle came in out of the pen and got the Tigers out in order.
Hurter continued working into the ninth and got the Yankees out in order. It was down to the final chance for the Tigers, and they were up against Clay Holmes. Jung didn’t get his first hit, but he did cause an ejection thanks to a bad strike call (it was hitting coach Michael Brdar who got booted, not Jung). The Tigers failed to score a single run.
Final: Yankees 3, Tigers 0