Well, it is in my author profile that I will forever believe in Gleyber Torres. He was a great Yankee that was criticized for his lowlights a bit too much. Aside from 2020-21, he was a very good offensive player that, although hampered by his terrible defense, was a key cog of the Yankees offense for seven years. I was very happy for him when he signed in Detroit and had a terrific first half which saw him finally make it back to the All-Star Game for the first time since 2019 after a few snubs towards
the end of his Yankee tenure.
You had to know that this was coming. On a day when the Yankees’ offense was silent, it was the former Yankee who hurt them. Torres drove in three Tigers runs and would’ve beat the Yankees singlehandedly, as the Bombers ended their four-series winning streak and dropped just their second series in the last month, losing this one 11-1. For the second day in a row, the bullpen completely imploded to let Detroit pull away.
It started out as a pitchers’ duel between Carlos Rodón and Jack Flaherty. The two exchanged zeroes for the first four innings. Rodón got some help from some sharp defense and pitched around two hits, while Flaherty was able to manage some spotty command by pitching to corners and getting some generous calls from the umpires to avoid some walks. The best chance for the Yankees early came in the third, when Ryan McMahon doubled and Trent Grisham worked a gritty walk to bring up Aaron Judge, who hit into a double play. Oof.
The Tigers struck first in the fifth. Dillon Dingler singled with one out, Parker Meadows drew a four-pitch walk, and Rodón hit Javy Baez to load the bases. While he struck out Jahmai Jones and got ahead of Gleyber, the former Yankee worked a great at-bat and dinked a two-run single into center field on 3-2. The Tigers went ahead, 2-0.
Flaherty struck out the side in the fifth, but his day was done there. The Yankees worked counts all game, but struggled to get hits and finish off walks. Rodón gritted through the sixth and turned in another quality start. While he takes the loss, he did more than enough to give the Yankees a chance to win.
The offense was in a pickle. Tyler Holton came on and gave up a leadoff single to a pinch-hitting Amed Rosario, only to be erased by Judge’s second double play of the game. This one was 112.6 mph off the bat.
Unfortunately, the Yankees had to give way to the bullpen. Mark Leiter Jr. allowed two hits, had a puzzling balk/wild pitch get stuck in Austin Wells’ chest protector, and struck out Kerry Carpenter before being lifted. Leiter’s .392 BABIP against is the second-highest of any reliever to throw 40 innings since 2020, which isn’t fun.
Camilo Doval came in and stopped the bleeding there, but not after an RBI groundout by Torres made it 3-0. After a third double play (this time a 102.9 mph GIDP by Ben Rice) stunted the offense in the seventh, the floodgates opened in the eighth. Doval gave up a bomb to Riley Greene, allowed a double that was booted by Bellinger, and was pulled for Tim Hill, who gave up a home run to Carpenter. No matter who they put in, it was extremely ugly. It’s now 8-0.
Hey, the Yankees got on the board in the eighth at least. Troy Melton, in a second inning of work, surrendered a long home run to Austin Wells. The catcher’s recent resurgence continued with his 21st home run, but that’s kinda all she wrote for the offense.
Luke Weaver came on to get some work in the ninth, and the hit parade continued with back-to-back singles. Greene added a sac fly, and Colt Keith smacked a home run. At this point, Aaron Boone didn’t see a point in throwing another reliever into the wood chipper, so we got some position player pitcher action. Austin Slater hopped off the bench and got on the mound. He got a ground ball that was, of course, booted by Caballero. Meadows hit into a forceout and got the same out of Javy. Austin Slater has a 0.00 ERA, folks.
Known two-way star Austin Slater led off the ninth with a single off Brennan Hanifee. Bellinger singled behind him, Rice struck out, and a pinch-hitting Jasson Domínguez hit an infield single to load the bases. Jazz Chisholm Jr, who had a rough game, hit a hard lineout, and Wells hit into a forceout to end the game. For the first time since 1988, the Yankees have lost by ten runs in consecutive games. Not great, Bob.
The good news? The Athletics walked off the Red Sox, and the Astros beat the Blue Jays. The bad news? There’s not much time left on the schedule to make up ground on Toronto, and with no separation between them and Boston, the weekend series at Fenway becomes absolutely critical.
