Yankees 2, Tigers 1: Detroit bats remains cold

DETROIT -- The Tigers' bats were about as cold as the Detroit weather Thursday afternoon. The end result: Another low-scoring affair for the Tigers on a 33-degree afternoon, and a 2-1 loss to the New York Yankees. That gave Detroit its first series defeat of the year, as the Tigers dropped three-of-four games at Comerica Park this week.

The lone bright point: Tigers starter Anibal Sanchez fixed the mechanical issue that plagued him in earlier starts. He finished the day with eight strikeouts recorded and one hit allowed in 6 1/3 innings. However, he did walk four, the walk to Jacoby Ellsbury proving to be costly.

Ellsbury came around to score on a balk that was called rather late, only after the Yankees' dugout began vocally expressing its disapproval. It was clear that Sanchez had balked -- he stepped off during his delivery to the batter -- but Tigers manager Brad Ausmus came out to take argue -- likely about how the matter was handled. Home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi ejected Ausmus sooner after, and Ausmus gave Cuzzi an earful before handing off managerial duties to Gene Lamont for the rest of the game.

The game stood at 1-1 at that point, the Tigers' run coming when Victor Martinez drove in Anthony Gose with a sacrifice fly in the first inning. That about did it for the fireworks out of the Tigers' dugout for the rest of the game. Detroit went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the sixth, again in the eighth and finally in the ninth. The Tigers recorded just three hits for the game, a pair of doubles by J.D. Martinez coupled with Gose's leadoff double.

Tigers reliever Tom Gorzelanny took the loss after allowing a run in the eighth inning after allowing Ellsbury a leadoff double. After walking Carlos Beltran, Gorzelanny forced a ground ball to Miguel Cabrera to set up an inning-ending double play, but Cabrera was unable to come up with it cleanly, recording only one out and allowing the run to score.

ROARS:

Anibal Sanchez: Sanchez allowed a grand total of one hit in 6 1/3 innings and he struck out eight batters. Ultimately, the only reason he gave up a run was due to a walk -- one of four for his day -- that came around to score on a balk. Sanchez finished with 113 pitches, 67 for strikes while pitching in 33-degree weather.

J.D. Martinez: In addition to running down a fly ball that nearly didn't die in the outfield, Martinez had another multi-hit game. Both knocks were of the extra-base variety in the form of smoked doubles.

HISSES:

Tigers offense: Runs were at a premium with Masahiro Tanaka on the mound, and other than the one run scored in the first inning, nothing happened. The Tigers had just three hits in all, Martinez accounting for two of them. Gose was the other.

STREAKS AND STATS:

• J.D. Martinez recorded his fourth multi-hit game of the season, both of which were doubles.
• Ian Kinsler is 0-for-11 with two strikeouts in his last three games.

WIN PROBABILITY GRAPH:

Source: FanGraphs