Maybin Homers but Tigers Lose

The Tigers lost 5-2 to the Yankees today in a frustrating game where they could not capitalize on several opportunities to score. They had 10 hits and a hit batsman in 6 innings off Roger Clemens but only scored twice. The Tigers left 10 men on base in all and had another picked off on a bizarre base running play. Clemens also helped himself by walking nobody and striking out 8.

The highlight of the game for the Tigers was a line drive home run to straight away center field by Cameron Maybin leading off the 5th which put them up 2-1 at the time. The Tigers were all smiles in the dugout after that one with biggest one of all coming from the 20 year old kid with braces. Earlier, Maybin got his first major league hit - a ground ball single to right on a hit and run. Predictably, he also was hit by the pitch for the first time when Roger Clemens got him on the wrist in the next at bat after his home run.

Unfortunately, there not many other highlights for the Tigers but there some lowlights. With runners on first and third and nobody out in the third, they failed to score. First, Granderson struck out and then there was a very unusual strike out throw out double play. With Marcus Thames at the plate, Maybin at first and Brandon Inge on third, Maybin took off for second and Thames struck out. Jorge Posada threw to second (apparently) and Inge took off for home. However, the ball never went to second and instead was caught by Clemens who nailed Inge for a very rare 2-1 double play.

Granderson and Magglio Ordonez had really tough days at the plate going 0 for 9 between them and leaving several runners on base. Granderson struck out with 2 men on in the 3rd and popped out with the base loaded ending the 6th. Ordonez struck out 3 times and failed to advance runners in the 1st, 4th and 7th innings.

Chad Dubin pitched well for 5 innings allowing just 1 run on 3 hits but ran into trouble in the third. Derek Jeter led off with a single and Bobby Abreu followed with 318 foot homer off the left field foul pole. Alex Rodriguez followed with a single and Durbin was removed from the game. Tim Byrdak and Jason Grilli combined to give up three more hits in the inning and 2 more runs scored making it 5-2 Yankees.

So the Tigers are 1 game behind the division leading Indians pending the outcome of their game with the Rays tonight. The Indians lead 3-0 in the 2nd inning as I type. Tomorrow, the Tigers will try to salvage a split of the series with Jeremy Bonderman going against Chien-Ming Wang.