From Bryan Hoch:
Aaron Judge hit his 359th career home run, breaking a tie with Yogi Berra for fifth place on the all-time franchise list, and Will Warren navigated six solid innings of two-run ball.
The Yankees wished the evening had stopped right there.
Fernando Cruz and Mark Leiter Jr. endured a nightmarish seventh inning, seeing the Tigers bat around for nine runs as the Yankees fell to Detroit, 12-2, on Tuesday evening at Yankee Stadium. It was the biggest inning permitted by New York this season.
“It was tough,” Warren said. “I don’t know what to say. I haven’t seen anything like that before.”
The Yankees now sit three games back in the American League East race, as the Blue Jays rallied to defeat the Astros, 4-3, in 10 innings. After the Red Sox 6-0 win over the Athletics, New York is now in a virtual tie with Boston for the top AL Wild Card spot, with the Sox holding the head-to-head tiebreaker. A Bombers loss felt inevitable after Detroit sent 14 batters to home plate in the seventh, with the first nine reaching.
At the end of the day, Fernando Cruz has been excellent for the Yankees. If he has an occasional meltdown, well, shit happens. Mark Leiter isn’t nearly as good as Cruz is, so when HE sucks, it is much more annoying, and I want to just see him cut from the team.
The offense wasn’t good, either, but, I mean, come the fuck on, it was all about that NINE-RUN 7th inning, with EIGHT of the runs scoring with NO OUTS. Insanity.
Featured image is Cruz walking in a row after he walked the bases loaded and blew the tie game by allowing a run-scoring single.