HUGHES LETDOWN
Phil struggles once again as Tigers cruise past Yanks
NEW YORK — Miguel Cabrera homered against the Yankees again and had three hits while playing on a bandaged leg and Torii Hunter connected and drove in four runs, leading the Detroit Tigers to a 9-3 victory over New York on Saturday.
Anibal Sanchez (10-7) tossed seven easy innings against a Yankees lineup that was without Alex Rodriguez. Manager Joe Girardi said he was giving the third baseman a day off after he struck out three times in his season debut in the Bronx.
Austin Jackson followed a four-hit, three-double night Friday with a homer and triple against the organization that drafted him. Don Kelly had a two-run single after Phil Hughes (411) was lifted in a four-run fifth to help the AL Central leaders win for the 17th time in 21 games since the All-Star break.
Hunter and Kelly each had three of Detroit’s 17 hits and Victor Martinez had an RBI double.
Lounging on a clubhouse couch Saturday morning, Cabrera was wearing a big, square Band-Aid over the spot on his left shin where he fouled one of two balls Friday night before homering off Mariano Rivera to send the game into extra innings. Detroit lost that one to end a 12-game win streak, but the Tigers rolled along Saturday behind the hobbled Triple Crown winner.
Cabrera singled in the first and connected in the third for his 35th of the year. He singled against Hughes in the fifth, slowly working his way around the bases and scoring on Kelly’s two-run single in a four-run inning.
A-Rod, who bolted the ballpark before talking to the media Friday night, was not surprised that Cabrera was able to homer while in so much pain.
“The guy is amazing. I mean that was a joke,” Rodriguez said Saturday. “Everyone thought he was dead — it was like the movies, you’ve got to shoot him to make sure he’s dead. I knew he wasn’t coming out of the game and said, `Don’t fall for that bait of limping around.’ He’s a dangerous guy.”
Hunter homered off Joba Chamberlain in the sixth to make it 9-2. Fans booed the little-used reliever about as much as they jeered Hughes, who failed to get past the fifth inning for the ninth time in 22 starts this season.
Jackson tripled over the head of center fielder Brett Gardner to start the game, and he scored on Hunter’s sacrifice fly. Cabrera homered in the third, and Jackson sent a one-out line drive over the left-field fence in the fifth.
The slumped-shouldered Hughes was lifted following Hunter’s single. He allowed seven hits and four runs in 4 1-3 innings, striking out six without a walk.
Cabrera then singled and Martinez had an RBI double off Preston Claiborne with Cabrera slowly chugging into third. He scored on Kelly’s two-run single for a 6-0 lead.
Chamberlain relieved with two on in the sixth, and gave up Hunter’s 13th of the year on his third pitch.
Lyle Overbay had pulled New York to 6-2 in the bottom of the fifth with a tworun drive to right. Overbay added an RBI single in the ninth.
Sanchez did not allow a baserunner until Gardner led off the fourth by fisting a blooper to right that went only a few yards farther than a shard of his broken bat that landed in between first and second base.
In the first start of his career at Yankee Stadium, Sanchez gave up two runs and four hits. He struck out seven and walked one.
NOTES: Detroit catcher Alex Avila went 1 for 5 in his return to the Tigers lineup. He sat out Friday, a day after being hit in the mask by a foul ball. ... Major League Baseball overturned an official scorer’s call in a game July 25, giving Andy Dirks an error on a line drive by the White Sox’s Tyler Flowers in the fourth inning. The hit was originally called an RBI double. Now, all four runs that inning against Justin Verlander are unearned. ... Yankees SS Derek Jeter (right calf) played catch on the field before the game. He said he might ride a stationary bike, and he also thinks he could start running in a couple of days. ... Verlander (12-8) faces Yankees LHP Andy Pettitte (7-9) on Sunday.