On a cold night that even included brief snow flurries, the Yankees offense pounced on Tigers starter David Price early, batting around in the first inning and scoring six runs. The Yankees beat Price last August in Detroit, bouncing him from the game with nine consecutive hits in one inning, though a few of those hits were ground balls that happened to find holes. Wednesday night, the Yankees were really swinging the bats well and scored eight runs on 10 hits while Price was still in the game (he didn’t make it out of the third inning).
Top WPA Play (.170):
The top play of the game came in the top of the first inning, which just about tells you how miserable of a game this was for the Tigers faithful. Did I mention it was cold? You probably gathered that from half the players wearing cold gear covering their necks and faces. Price, however, didn’t even wear sleeves on this night and he probably wishes he would’ve because he looks cold watching this Gregorio Petit double go over the head of Yoenis Cespedes in left field, clearing the bases. It was 5-0 after Petit’s double and the Yankees would score again in the inning, making it 6-0 and with Price’s pitch count raised it was clear he wasn’t going to be long for this game.
The Tigers came right back in the bottom of the inning. Adam Warren might’ve had a difficult time getting loose as after he came in from the bullpen he had to sit on the cold bench for at least a half hour. He started the game by walking four of the first five batters he faced. Then Cespedes hit an infield single on what was really just a very bad decision by Didi Gregorius in the field. With the bases loaded and one out, Gregorius made a diving stop to his right, but he somehow didn’t realize he had an out at third sitting there with Victor Martinez running and instead attempted the force at second where there was no play.
The Yankees would eventually escape the inning still with the lead, though it was only 6-4. Gregorius came through in a big way at the plate a few innings later in the fourth as his double drove in two runs and extended the Yankees lead to 10-4. He really needed that. The Tigers wouldn’t score again after the first inning and Adam Warren made it through 5 and 2/3 innings, which seemed unlikely in the first inning.
Trend to Watch: Sure, it was at the end of a blowout, but Chase Shreve looked good out of the bullpen once again. He struck out two of the three batters he faced and his ERA is currently 1.59. He looks like a nice find and could turn out to be a big part of the bullpen.
Up Next: The Yankees have a getaway day game Thursday afternoon against the Tigers before coming home to play the first place Mets. The starters are Masahiro Tanaka and Anibal Sanchez, who was rocked for nine earned runs in his last start at home against the White Sox.