I’ll be the first to admit, I didn’t have high hopes for tonight’s game but I really wanted to be proven wrong. I wanted Ivan Nova to come out and shock me by having a strong outing against the Tigers. Alas, he didn’t.
It seems that the luck he had on balls in play from last season was unsustainable, plus giving up bombs to Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder isn’t really helpful either. You can say, “Well, at least no one was on base,” but it didn’t matter because Nova gave up a total of seven earned runs in just over five innings of work and Detroit had 11 hits total off of him – 13 for the game.
His counterpart, Justin Verlander, didn’t have any issues tonight. And unlike how his previous two starts against the Yankees this season had been, Verlander had everything working for him. He lasted eight innings, gave up only two runs on eight hits and struck out 14. Yes, fourteen.
The only Yankee who had a good night against Verlander was Eric Chavez. Chavez was 3-4 with a double. Ichiro Suzuki‘s 12-game hitting streak was snapped tonight. He was the DH for the Yanks and struck out in three out of four at bats. Curtis Granderson also had an awful night at the plate with three strikeouts of his own.
The Tigers spread the wealth with seven different guys getting an RBI each – Brennan Boesch was the only one who didn’t get an RBI but he did get a hit- all of Detroit’s starters got at least one hit in the game and as a team they were 4-7 with runners in scoring position.
The Yankees were 3-14 with runners in scoring position. Same old story.
Joba Chamberlain relieved Nova in the sixth inning, pitched 1.2 innings, gave up two hits, no runs and struck out one batter. Guess he’s not dead yet, right Ian O’Connor?
Tomorrow the Yankees look to Phil Hughes to keep up his good fortune against the Tigers in Comerica Park – Hughes actually has good numbers in his career. Granted, it’s only 98 at bats but he’s held them to 15 hits – one double, no triples, four home runs – he’s walked seven batters and has struck out 28. He’s held the Tigers batters to a line of .153/.217/.286/.503.
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