Detroit Tigers Keep Pounding Away, Beat Yankees 8-4

Detroit Tigers 8, New York Yankees 4 (box score)

April 6, 2013; Detroit, MI, USA; Detroit Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera (24) slides in safe at home to score in the fifth inning as New York Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli (29) waits for the throw at Comerica Park. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

For the second straight day, the Detroit Tigers hung an eight spot on the New York Yankees. They didn’t hit three home runs like they did on Firday — they didn’t hit any home runs, in fact — but they did record 17 hits in a constant barrage of bat-on-ball.

Austin Jackson and Torii Hunter  continually set the table at the top of the lineup. They each had three hits in five plate appearances (one double for Hunter) to set up the big fellas behind them. Miguel Cabrera followed them with four hits (one double) and a walk in his five plate appearances. Prince Fielder and Victor Martinez both had a hit, a walk, and a sacrifice fly, and Andy Dirks and Jhonny Peralta followed with two hits apiece. The lone Tiger to fail to reach base was Ramon Santiago, who went 0-4 with three strikeouts.

Max Scherzer was pretty sharp through the fifth inning (7 K, 1 ER, 0 BB), but didn’t have the feel when he came out for the sixth inning. He walked the first two Yankee batters of the inning and then allowed an RBI single before being lifted for Al Alburquerque. Al Al allowed two of the runs to score (charged to Scherzer) after giving up two walks of his own and  a base hit, but a double play and a ground out got the team out of the inning.

Darin Downs pitched two excellent innings in relief in the sixth and seventh. He walked one, but struck out two and didn’t allow a hit. Joaquin Benoit pitched a perfect ninth (with a strikeout) to end the game in a non-save situation.

Bullets

• As a team, the Tigers reached base on 20 of their 43 plate appearances. 21 or 43 if you include Jackson reaching on an error to lead off the game.
• The Jackson-Hunter-Cabrera-Fielder-Martinez quintet combined for a .600 on-base percentage on the afternoon. That group is going to be fun to watch all year.
• Scherzer’s final line won’t look pretty, but he really did pitch pretty well. He left some pitches up in the zone in the first inning which resulted in some loud outs, but settled in nicely as the game went. I’m not sure what happened in the sixth, but I’m willing to ignore it for now.
• A win on Sunday to complete the sweep would make up for the bumbling start in Minnesota.
• The Yankees are 1-4.