Tigers 2, Yankees 1: Matthew Boyd dazzles again as Tigers take series in New York

Matthew Boyd had another dominant outing and the Detroit Tigers offense did just enough to eek out a 2-1 victory over the New York Yankees on Wednesday afternoon. The win gave Detroit a series win over the Yankees and moved them over .500 for the first time since Opening Day.

After both teams threatened in the second, the Yankees struck first in the bottom of the third inning. DJ LeMahieu narrowly missed a home run, but settled for a double off the top of the left field wall. He scored just a few pitches later when Aaron Judge lined a single into right field. Boyd was fortunate to escape with just the one run allowed, though. He walked Gary Sanchez later in the inning, and gave up a sharp grounder to Gleyber Torres destined for center field. Fortunately for the Tigers, the ball deflected off of Judge, resulting in the third out of the inning.

The Tigers tied the score in the next inning, but also could have had more. They loaded the bases with one out against Loaisiga, and tied the game on a Christin Stewart sacrifice fly — credit to Nicholas Castellanos for a great slide to avoid the tag on a close play. But John Hicks struck out with runners on second and third to end the threat.

Other than that inning, it was all Boyd. He struck out 13 of the 27 batters he faced, a career high. He also set a career-best with 26 swinging strikes (the highest total by a Tigers pitcher in the Statcast era).

The Yankees threatened a couple of times — they put runners in scoring position in the fifth and sixth — but Boyd shut the door to keep the game tied. He finished the day after 6 ¹⁄₃ innings with five hits and three walks allowed.

The score remained tied until the eighth inning, when Gordon Beckham lined a 1-0 fastball from former Tigers prospect Chad Green into the short porch in right field. The solo home run was his first hit as a Tiger and just the team’s second homer of the season — yes, their first since Christin Stewart’s game-winner on Opening Day.

From there, the Tigers bullpen did the rest. Buck Farmer recorded two outs in the seventh after Boyd departed, and Joe Jimenez and Shane Greene worked a pair of scoreless innings to close out the win.

Matthew Boyd stat city

• Boyd’s 13 strikeouts were a career-high, topping an 11-strikeout performance against the St. Louis Cardinals last September.
• This was Boyd’s second consecutive 10-strikeout game to open the season. He is the first Tigers pitcher to do this.
• Boyd now has 23 strikeouts on the season, which leads all MLB pitchers. Max Scherzer is second with 21 punch outs. Next best in the American League is Blake Snell, with 16 strikeouts.
• Boyd’s 13 strikeouts are the most by a Tigers pitcher since Scherzer struck out 14 Pirates hitters back in 2014. They are the most by a Tigers lefty since Mickey Lolich punched out 15 hitters in a start way back in 1972.

Up next

After a seven-game road trip to open the season, the Tigers will head back to Detroit for their home opener against the Kansas City Royals on Thursday. Spencer Turnbull will start for the Tigers against Royals righthander Jake Junis.