They were down by 4 runs heading into the 9th inning, and found themselves with the tying run only 180 feet from home plate. But, it was not meant to be, as the final out was recorded at Comerica Park in Detroit before that base runner could come home and send it into extra innings.
Kei Igawa had a very rough day, getting the loss, and seeing his ERA soar to 18.00. He was hit hard and often by the high powered offense that has been assembled in Detroit. He lasted 3 innings, and pitched to 4 batters in the 4th inning, recording no outs, before getting the hook from manager Joe Girardi. Igawa’s miserable numbers look like this: 3 innings, 11 hits, 6 earned runs. Dismal to say the least. None of those runs scored, scored on homers, so it goes to show how bad he was hit around.
The bright spot for the pitching staff was the bullpen. When they came on in relief, in the 4th inning, they proceeded to pitch shut out baseball for the remainder of the game. The totals for the rest of the game saw only 2 hits, and 4 strike outs over the 5 innings left in this one. By the way, that was 4 strike outs more than Igawa had this time around. OUCH!
The Yankees didn’t stop until the umpire called the last out, surging late in the game, with a 9th inning rally, scoring three of the needed four. The Tiger bullpen is somewhat known for it’s collapses, so as the inning stretched on you felt more and more confident about the results. They had the tying run on second, and that was as far as they could take it.
They end up losing a tough one, and again drop below .500 (18-19). Staying pretty steady at .500 is not bad, but it is not Yankee baseball. With approximately 1/4 of the season behind us now, it is time that they do the necessary things to straighten up that pitching staff.
