Yankees 3, Tigers 1: Detroit offense listless again in series opener

In their first visit to New York in 2019, the Tigers continued their offensive cold streak, falling to the New York Yankees 3-1.

The Tigers scored their lone run of the night in the fourth inning. Christin Stewart started the inning off with a walk, and a Jordy Mercer single moved him to second base. Later in the inning, Stewart scored on a wild pitch that Gary Sanchez threw into center field before Mikie Mahtook struck out to end the frame.

Tyson Ross had his fair share of struggles in his Tigers debut, allowing three runs. In the bottom of the second, Gary Sanchez took Ross deep to make it a 1-0 ballgame. In the third inning, a Stewart error scored Luke Voit on a Greg Bird single, but the run was unearned. Later, Brett Gardner knocked a solo shot off of Ross in the fifth inning. He finished the day going five innings while allowing two earned runs (three total) on four hits and four walks. He punched out four batters.

Jordy Mercer was the lone source of offense for the Tigers, as he notched his first two hits of the season; one came off of Domingo German, and the other reliever Zack Britton. The rest of the team combined to notch zero hits off of Yankees pitching — though, to be fair to Niko Goodrum, he was robbed of a potential RBI single by a spectacular Aaron Judge catch in the eighth inning.

The most encouraging aspect from this game came from the Tigers’ bullpen. Blaine Hardy pitched 1 ²⁄₃ perfect innings with two strikeouts, including a swinging punch out of DJ LeMahieu on an 80.8 mile-per-hour changeup. Reed Garrett was similarly impressive, pitching 1 ¹⁄₃ innings with two strikeouts while allowing just one hit.

On Tuesday, Jordan Zimmermann will try to right the ship as he faces off against Masahiro Tanaka.

Tweet (and stat) of the game