David Price Gets Chased Early, Detroit Tigers Lose 8-4 to New York Yankees

Aug 27, 2014; Detroit, MI, USA; Detroit Tigers starting pitcher David Price (14) walks off the field after being relieved during the third inning against the New York Yankees at Comerica Park. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

The Detroit Tigers honored Derek Jeter before tonight’s game against the New York Yankees, but Yankees did not honor David Price’s birthday as they chased him in the 3^rd inning and defeated the Tigers 8-4.

David Price got the start for the Tigers tonight and he obviously did not have his best stuff. The Price’s start tonight seemed a lot like Rick Porcello’s start in Los Angeles against the LA Angels last year, but without the Mike Trout grand slam. Price’s final line was 2+ IP, 12 H, 8 ER, 1 BB, 3 K on 68 pitches. The Yankees batted around without recording an out in the third inning to end Price’s night. Nine players came to the plate against Price and all 9 reached on a hit.

To put into perspective how bad Price’s night was, according to the Detroit Free Press, Price is the 4^th starting pitcher in the last 101 seasons to give up at least 12 hits in 2 or fewer innings. The others were Shawn Estes from the Cubs in 2003, Johnny Podres from the Dodgers in 1963, and George Uhle from the Tigers against the Yankees in 1929.

Here is the complete rundown of the third inning that ended Price’s night:

• Jacoby Ellsbury hit a leadoff single. He moved up to 2^nd when he should have been picked off by Price, but the pickoff throw was low and Miguel Cabrera could not get the ball down to 2^nd in time to throw out Ellsbury.
• Jeter then doubled down the right field line to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead.
• The Yankees extended their lead with a single from Martin Prado to move Jeter to 3^rd and a Mark Teixeira double to score him and give the Yankees a 2-0 lead.
• Carlos Beltran followed Teixeira with a single off of the wall to score Prado for a 3-0 Yankees lead.
• Brian McCan followed Beltran with a flare single to center field to score Teixeira and give the Yankees a 4-0 lead.
• Chase Headley then weakly singled to load the bases.
• Brett Gardner then came to the plate and hit a soft groundball to shortstop for an infield single.
• Francisco Cervelli then hit a ground ball through the hole to score McCann and give the Yankees a 6-0 lead. This was the end of Price’s night and beginning of Blaine Hardy’s.
• Ellsbury came to the plate once again and hit a sacrifice fly to left field to score Headley for a 7-0 Yankees lead and move up the other two runners.
• Jeter hit a sacrifice fly to center field to score Gardner from third to give the Yankees an 8-0 lead.
• The inning mercifully ended when Hardy retired Prado, but 8 runs were already on the board.

Yankees starter, Shane Greene held the Tigers hitless through 3 innings, but the Tigers not only got a hit in the third, but also scored. Torii Hunter led off with a single and scored on a double into the left field corner by Miguel Cabrera to make it an 8-1 game. The Tigers then proceeded to strand Cabrera at third.

Greene got back on a roll until the 6^th inning when Victor Martinez launched a home run into the right field seats to cut the deficit to 8-2.

Greene got into more trouble in the 7^th inning. Prado made an error to allow Alex Avila to reach to lead off the inning. Rajai Davis was hit by a pitch to put two runners on with one out. The Tigers then stranded these two runners.

Greene was excellent once again against the Tigers. His final line was 7 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K on 101 pitches.

The Tigers put up a little bit more of a fight in the 8^th. Victor Martinez walked and was tripled home by Nick Castellanos who has been putting really good swings on the ball for a while now to cut the lead to 8-3. The Tigers also put together a 2 out rally in the 9th. Ian Kinsler hit a 2 out double and was driven in by Torii Hunter to get the score to 8-4 which was the final.

The highlight of this game for the Tigers was the performance of the bullpen. After Price left the game in the third, Hardy gave up the 2 sacrifice flies to let runs score, but did not allow a hit or walk a batter. Phil Coke pitched two perfect innings with a strikeout. Pat McCoy pitched two shutout innings, yielding only one hit and one walk. Jim Johnson threw a scoreless 8^th inning. Al Alburquerque also pitched in with a scoreless 9^th inning.

These two teams will face off in the rubber match Thursday afternoon at 1:08. Kyle Lobstein will make his first career Major League start against Hiroki Kuroda. Lobstein made his Major League debut in relief Saturday against the Minnesota Twins where he went 5.2 innings and allowed 4 H, 3 ER, 4 BB and 3 K.