Tigers 11, Yankees 7: Have a day, Victor! (No, the other one.)

Victor Reyes had a four-hit game, including his first major-league home run, and Matthew Boyd had a strong start to give the Tigers a split of their weekend four-game series with the Yankees, winning Sunday’s afternoon game 11-7.

Boyd’s day started quite unlike the previous two, for Tigers starting pitching: he had zero no-hit innings to start the game. The Yankees scored two in the bottom of the first on a solo home run, single and double; this was after the Tigers scored one in the top of the frame on a JaCoby Jones triple and Niko Goodrum single. Detroit tied the score in the top of the second, with a trio of hits scoring Ronny Rodriguez.

Lance Lynn has faced the Tigers twice before this season and done pretty well: in those two outings he’s been 1-1, but with a stingy 2.03 ERA in 13 ¹⁄₃ innings. Before being traded from the Twins, his ERA and WHIP in 102 ¹⁄₃ innings were 5.10 and 1.632; coming into today’s game, in 31 ²⁄₃ innings with the Yankees those were 3.98 and 1.358, so he’s been a bit improved, but nowhere near the pitcher he was all those years with the Cardinals.

Boyd settled down nicely after a two-out Luke Voit single in the first, with 1-2-3 innings in the second and third. He went six innings, giving up three runs on five hits, only walked one, and whiffed six. He was up-and-down in August, with three starts giving up 4-or-more runs, and two of one-or-less. If he could settle down and finish the year with some solid starts, that’d be lovely.

Dawel Lugo, ladies and gentlemen! What a guy. Four line drives yesterday (with unfortunately nothing to show for it), 3-for-4 on Friday night, and 2-for-4 today. As Jim Price might say, “He loves those tall buildings up here in the major leauges.” (Who am I kidding, there’s a 100% chance Jim said that.)

In the top of the fourth a Rodriguez single, Lugo single and Reyes double plated RonRod to go up 3-2. Jones ripped a double to left to score Lugo and Reyes, making it 5-2 and chasing Lynn with the Bronx faithful, shall we say, “voicing their opinion” of Lynn’s outing, as they tend to do from time to time. Nicholas Castellanos wasted no time when Tommy Kahnle relieved Lynn, turning Kahnle’s first pitch around and depositing it into the left-field seats for a 7-2 lead.

Voit’s solo home run in the fourth narrowed the lead to 7-3, but then Reyes hit his first major-league home run, a no-doubter to right to push the lead back to five runs, in the top of the sixth. He finished the day with two doubles, a home run and a single... but got picked off in the eighth after the single. Not too shabby, all in all.

Alex Wilson took over after the Stretch and had a 1-2-3 seventh, capped off by a fine running catch by Mikie Mahtook. He had a trio of rough games in mid-August, and save for his shaky, short outing on Friday night, has been fairly solid the last couple of weeks.

Louis Coleman inauspiciously started the bottom of the eighth by plunking the newest Yankee, Andrew McCutchen, and walking Aaron Hicks. Miguel Andujar’s single scored McCutchen, and Tiger fans started wringing their hands, as no lead is safe against the Yankees (and especially in New York). Coleman loaded the bases with another walk and handed the crap-burger over to Victor Alcantara; he got Voit on strikes, but a single off Alcantara’s glove scored another run to make it 8-5. Greg Bird came within about five feet from hitting a line-drive grand slam to right, but — who else? — Victor Reyes made a nice catch for the third out. That sound you thought you heard off in the distance on Sunday afternoon? That was the sound of thousands of sphincters unclenching.

The hit parade kept going in the top of the ninth. Castellanos doubled, Mikie Mahtook and James McCann walked, and RonRod drove the first two in with a single to centre. Lugo then drove in McCann with his third hit of the day to cap off the Tigers’ scoring.

Shane Greene, in a non-save situation, got the first two outs easily... then he walked Hicks, allowed a dribbler of an infield single to third to Andujar, and walked Gary Sanchez. Gleyber Torres singled to drive in two, making it 11-7; is nothing ever easy? Sheesh. Greene finally got the third out by striking out Voit looking.

Stats and Notes

• The bottom third of the order combined to go 10-for-15, scoring five times and driving in six.
• Nicholas Castellanos’ two-run home run in the fourth was his 20th of the season. This made 2018 his second 20-HR season.
• The average density of the planet Saturn is less than one gram per cubic centimetre. This means that, if you had a bowl large enough in which Saturn could float in water, it would.