Detroit Tigers lose third straight as Masahiro Tanaka dominates

The New York Yankees. “Baseball’s evil empire” as they are referred to by some.

After starting out the season 3-6 the Yankees were able to roll into Motown and take win three out of four games against the Detroit Tigers; the Bronx Bomber’s dominance was capped off with a 2-1 win on Thursday. Absolute evil, no doubt.

This loss marks the third straight loss for the Tigers, whom have been unable to keep up with the Kansas City Royals the past few days. But don’t worry…it’s a long season so no need to panic.

Taking the hill for the Tigers was Anibal Sanchez as Masahiro Tanaka started for New York. Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News sums up the bit of action that took place stating “the Tigers struck quickly against Tanaka, getting a leadoff double by Anthony Gose, who scored three batters later on Victor Martinez’s sacrifice fly.”

From that point on, Tanaka retired the next 10 Tigers.

To put it simply it was the Masahiro Tanaka Show at Comerica Park as he “posted his second strong start in a row, holding the Tigers to one run on three hits and two walks, striking out six over 6.1 innings. Tanaka didn’t factor into the decision, though, as the Yankees took their first lead of the game in the eighth on an RBI groundout by Brian McCann. The Bombers had trailed by a run since the first inning before scoring their first run on Anibal Sanchez’s sixth-inning balk.”

Sanchez was able to carry is shutout performance to the sixth inning, but an error of his own ultimately cost him the game. Manager Brad Ausmus was ejected for arguing the balk call.

Reliever Tom Gorzelonny came in during the seventh inning and was able to preserve the tie. But not for long, Feinsand states:

Ellsbury opened the eighth with a double against Gorzelanny, moving to third on Gardner’s sac bunt. Beltran was intentionally walked to set up the double play, a move that almost worked.But McCann’s grounder to first glanced off Cabrera’s glove, and while Ian Kinsler managed to get the out at first, Ellsbury scored to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead.

The Tigers are set to take on the Cleveland Indians at Comerica Park for a three game series beginning Friday.