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The Yankees were out offensed today as the Tigers beat up the pitching and out hit the offense. Once again the starting pitching wasn't spectacular, but still showed signs of effectiveness and the offense could not make up for it. Once again the bullpen was terrible.
The Yankees scored first in the third inning when Chris Stewart singled, moved to second on a ground ball, moved to third on a wild pitch and finally scored on an Eduardo Nunez single. In the top of the fourth Ben Francisco hit a solo home run to make it 2-0 Yankees.
The Tigers struck back in the bottom of the fourth when Torii Hunter doubled and scored after two consecutive ground balls to make it 2-1. Then Brett Gardner singled, Nunez singled and Kevin Youkilis doubled to increase the Yankees' lead to 4-1. The Tigers answered right back when Jhonny Peralta hit a solo home run, then a double, single and sac fly later it was 4-3. Omar Infante stole second and Hunter doubled again to tie the score.
The bottom of the seventh is when the game got out of hand for the Yankees. Torii Hunter singled, then Miguel Cabrera hit a bomb to dead centerfield to make the score 6-4. Quintin Berry singled and Victor Martinez doubled to make the score 7-4. Two singles later it was 9-4 Tigers.
In the top of the eighth Juan Rivera singled and then Ben Francisco hit another home run to make the score 9-6. In the bottom of the inning, ex-Yankee Kevin Russo hit a solo home run to make the score 10-5.
Andy Pettitte started off strong, but the Tigers' offense finally got to him. He gave up four earned runs on eight hits, but he did manage to strike out five batters in 6.1 innings. Cody Eppley came in and blew the game up giving up five hits and five earned runs and didn't manage to get a single batter out. He was replaced by Shawn Kelley, who gave up one run on two hits with two strikeouts in 1.1 inning pitched. Juan Cedeno also got into the game and gave up one hit.
Ben Francisco had two home runs today and was the only Yankee hitter to draw a walk. Juan Rivera had three hits in the game and Nunez had two hits with a stolen base. Gardner, Ichiro Suzuki, Youkilis, Jayson Nix, Stewart, Addison Maruszak, and Jose Pirela all had a hit each. Travis Hafner went hitless.
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