Yankees 2, Tigers 5: Winning streak ends at five

After an hour-long rain delay, the game got underway as the Yankees tried to make it 6–0 for the first time this season and the Tigers attempted to stay within the playoff race. Unfortunately for Yankees fans, things didn't go so well and the night ended up going to Detroit.

It was painfully clear that Brandon McCarthy just didn't have his best stuff in the early goings of the night. In the bottom of the second inning, the righty surrendered a single, walked a batter and hit a batter to load the bases. He then lost the plate again against J.D. Martinez to walk in the first run of the night. While he was able to get out of trouble, the Tigers got another run off of him in the next inning. McCarthy surrendered a double to Miguel Cabrera and Martinez came up again and promptly drove him in to make it a 2–0 game in favor of the Tigers.

McCarthy got taken for a ride in the sixth when Victor Martinez singled and, J.D. Martinez, going 3-3 off the Yankees hurler, doubled. A single and a groundout later and the Tigers had another two runs off McCarthy. He was knocked out of the game in the seventh after he surrendered a hustle double to Rajai Davis and Torii Hunter plated him for the Tigers' fifth run of the night.

When it was all said and done, McCarthy gave up five earned runs on nine hits and two walks, while striking out five in 6.1 innings. Sure, he gave the team some innings, but the Yankees, especially this offense, wasn't going to do anything with that kind of pitching. Esmil Rogers came in and offered 1.2 innings of relief, striking out three batters, and at least keeping the Yankees within striking distance of a late-innings comeback that never happened.

After a true offensive breakout against the Royals on Monday, the Yankee offense fell back into its anemic ways, managing only two runs tonight. There was some offensive activity from the order in the first few innings, but the Yankees didn't get on the board until the fifth when Jacoby Ellsbury hit a solo home run. The team didn't get anything going again until the eighth when Ellsbury hit another dinger to score New York's second, and only other run.

Aside from Ellsbury's 3-4 night, Derek Jeter and Carlos Beltran both collected two hits, while Brian McCann and Ichiro Suzuki each had hits of their own. The offense didn't seem completely inept, like they have in the past, they just couldn't get anything going against Rick Porcello, who allowed a total of nine hits, while only striking out two batters, but still managed to limit the Yankees to just two runs over 8.0 innings. Not even the incredibly awful Joe Nathan had trouble putting away the Yankees lineup in the ninth.

Maybe the Yankees will recover from here and take the next two games, but this is the series that they absolutely need to start performing for. They have a chance to knock Detroit down a peg this series, but they need to find a way to score runs again if they actually want to be a legitimate contender for the wild card. I know, I know; same old problem, different day. But it needs to happen.