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DETROIT (AP) -Nothing in Jim Leyland's 46 years in professional baseball prepared him for Tuesday night.
Leyland's
Detroit Tigers
were in a scoreless duel with the
New York Yankees
through six innings. New York then scored 10 runs in the seventh en route to an 11-0 victory.
''I've never seen anything like that in my life,'' the 64-year-old Leyland said. ''You are 0-0 through six, and then it is
10-0? That's not something I ever remember.''
Leyland wasn't having a memory lapse - according to the Elias Sports Bureau, no team had broken up a scoreless tie after the
sixth with a 10-run inning since the
Cincinnati Reds
scored 10 in the top of the 13th against the Brooklyn Dodgers on May 15, 1919.
New York, which ended a four-game losing streak, sent 14 batters to the plate against three pitchers in the 56-pitch, 40-minute
inning.
''That was great,'' said
Jose Molina
, who had a sacrifice bunt and a grand slam in the inning. ''I was just doing what the manager wanted me to do.''
New York's
Phil Hughes
, making his first start after being called up from Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, and
Edwin Jackson
dueled through six innings.
''He looked really good,'' said Yankees manager
Joe Girardi
, who said he took Hughes out because of the length of the New York seventh. ''He had his legs under him tonight.''
Hughes, who replaced the injured Chien-Ming Wang in the rotation, allowed two hits in his first win since 2007.
''I feel like I'm back to where I was a couple years ago,'' Hughes said. ''I just wanted to pitch well and earn another shot.''
Nick Swisher
led off the seventh against
Ryan Perry
(0-1) with a single and
Melky Cabrera
walked. After Molina's sacrifice, pinch-hitter
Jorge Posada
lifted what looked like a routine fly ball to left.
Anderson held back on the ball, positioning himself for a throw, but he misjudged the trajectory and tried to make a hurried,
low catch. He missed the ball for a two-base, two-run error.
''I was trying to get some momentum, even on a shallow-hit ball,'' he said. ''I saw the ball the whole way, but I hesitated,
and the ball dove hard toward the ground.''
Derek Jeter
then walked and
Johnny Damon
blooped an RBI single to center off
Nate Robertson
.
Mark Teixeira
popped out, but
Hideki Matsui
and
Robinson Cano
made it 5-0 with RBI singles.
Swisher walked to load the bases, and Cabrera walked for the second time in the inning to force in the sixth run. Molina hit
a grand slam on the next pitch, about a half-hour after his successful sacrifice.
''That's not something you are going to see very often in one inning,'' Girardi said.
Swisher led off the ninth with a long homer to right-center. Detroit's pitchers threw exactly 200 pitches in the game.
''Jackson was tremendous, but we had a young pitcher out there in Perry and he had a rough night,'' Leyland said. ''That's
going to happen, but we didn't do the job of shutting the floodgates behind him.''
Notes: Cano battled Jackson for 12 pitches before reaching on a bad-hop infield single in the fourth, and went 10 pitches
before striking out in the sixth. ... Yankees 3B
Alex Rodriguez
slid and hit off two rehabbing pitchers during a simulated game in Tampa. He is expected to join the team on May 15. Girardi
says he wants to make sure Rodriguez can play every day when he returns. ... Wang, who has weakness in the abductor muscles
in his hips, threw 50 pitches in Tampa and Girardi said he felt good. ... The Yankees optioned RP
Steven Jackson
to Triple-A to make room for Hughes, while the Tigers sent down 1B
Jeff Larish
and recalled RP
Clay Rapada
from Triple-A Toledo.
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