Parker Meadows keys Detroit Tigers' wild breakout to slug Yankees, 12-2
admin_news
NEW YORK — Welcome to bizzarro world.
A tight, intense battle between the Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees turned into a blowout after the craziest inning you will ever see. Fourteen Tigers went to the plate in the seventh inning and they scored 9 runs after a series of walks and bloopers and wild pitches and a huge Kerry Carpenter blast. Yankees fans booed, right on cue, followed by a true Bronx cheer, as the Tigers streaked to a 12-2 victory at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, Sept. 9.
The Tigers (83-62) hold an 8½-game lead over the Cleveland Guardians in the American League Central with 17 games to play. The Tigers' magic number to clinch the division is 10.
The inning started normal enough – a Riley Greene double – in a tight 2-2 game. Then, New York reliever Fernando Cruz had serious command issues, walking both Spencer Torkelson and Wenceel Perez. Parker Meadows singled to right field, giving the Tigers a 3-2 lead. Interesting stat: at that point, Meadows had knocked in all three runs after crushing a 2-run homer in the fifth.
But that inning was just getting started. Then, Cruz walked Dillon Dingler, giving the Tigers a 4-2 lead.
So, the Yankees turned to Mark Leiter, Jr. Trey Sweeney promptly hit a high flyball into shallow center that should have been caught but it dropped between three fielders and gave the Tigers a 5-2 lead. After Colt Keith was hit by a pitch, Gleyber Torres walked and a wild pitch with the bases loaded gave the Tigers a 8-2 advantage.
It got to the point where the Tigers seemed to look at each other and said: No way, I’m not gonna make the first out.
Then, Carpenter cleaned it all up, bringing pure baseball back, smashing a triple and giving the Tigers an 11-2 advantage.
All with no outs.
Cue the Bronx cheer.
Buy our book: The Epic History of the Tigers
Casey Mize vs Aaron Judge
Before all that craziness, there was a great battle between Tigers pitcher Casey Mize and Aaron Judge, the great Yankees (80-64) slugger.
When Judge stepped to the plate in the first inning, the stats on the scoreboard were so outlandish they didn’t look real. He had a .321 batting average, 43 homers and 1.099 OPS
Judge was facing Mize, who jumped ahead quickly, 0-2. It was the perfect situation for Mize, at least in theory, allowing him to nibble on the edges. But Judge worked the count full and then crushed a 90-mph splitter – a mistake pitch by Mize that Judge didn’t miss.
In fact, it was historic blast for Judge. It was his 359th career homer, the fifth most in Yankees history, passing Yogi Berra. The four still in front of him? We are talking massive names: Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio.
In the fourth inning, Judge hit another towering fly ball to right field that he just missed and it was caught by Carpenter. But the next batter, Cody Bellinger didn’t miss, hitting his 28th homer of the season, as the Yankees took a 2-0 lead.
None of this came as a surprise to Tigers manager A.J. Hinch, who raved about the Yankees power potential before the game. “They're hitting the ball out of the ballpark pretty regularly,” Hinch said. “They are a team full of power-hitters who continue to put pressure on you. Obviously, it starts with (Aaron) Judge in the middle of the order, but it goes beyond him with the way a lot of time they stack their left-handed hitters.”
This was an important game for Mize, who had a great start to the season, becoming an All-Star but he struggled after it.
But in his last start before this one, he seemed to turn it around, allowing one run on five hits and no walks, with three strikeouts across five innings against the New York Mets. It was his best performance since July 5, when he blanked the Cleveland Guardians for seven innings in a 1-0 win.
“I'm looking forward to seeing him, you know, come out of his last start with the good fastball that he had that sets up everything for him,” Hinch said before the game. “It allows him to pitch creatively… hopefully an extended outing for him where he's executing his pitches and getting them in between is really key for him.”
The Yankees threatened in the fifth inning, stringing together a pair of singles. But Anthony Volpe popped out on a failed bunt, Mize struck out Ryan McMahon and he got Trent Grisham to fly out, swinging at a 3-0 count.
Judge, ironically, was stranded at the on-deck circle.
Alas, in the sixth inning, Mize struck him out.
It appeared that Mize was going to pitch into the seventh – he didn’t get the handshake -- but Hinch seemed to change his mind after the Tigers took the massive lead.
So, that crazy inning saved some pitches on Mize’s arm and the Tigers were able to save the backend of their bullpen for the rest of this two-city road trip that will end in Miami.
Why Zach McKinstry didn't play
Before the game, McKinstry was scratched from the starting lineup for the first game of this three-game series.
“He had some upper back soreness that he reported late this afternoon after hitting,” Hinch said Monday afternoon.
Hinch called the move “cautionary” and inserted Trey Sweeney into the starting lineup, slipping him into the No. 9 hole in the batting order against Yankees right-handed pitcher Will Warren.
Then, Sweeney crushed a long fly ball to deep center. Trent Grisham caught the ball near the top of the wall – it was hard to tell if it would have been a homer. But it was clearly a great catch that took away a great smash by Sweeney.
The other wild twist Hinch moved Meadows up to the seven hole, when he changed his lineup, and Meadows hit a two-run homer, going 3-for-5 with 3 RBI and two runs.
Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him @seideljeff. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tigers game score: Parker Meadows keys Tigers outbreak to slug Yankees
