YANKEES LOSE TO TIGERS IN BOTTOM OF 9TH

Okay Yankee fans, it's multiple choice time!  The Yankees lost to the Tigers tonight 4-3 because..

A)  Hiroki Kuroda got knocked around and could not keep the ball in the park?

B)  Tigers pitching was lights out?

C)  The Yankees, once again, were inept with runners in scoring position?

If you picked A you would be incorrect.  Kuroda was really good tonight.  He went 7 innings only giving up 2 runs on 7 hits.  He struck out four Tiger batters only walking one.  The Yankees would take this Kuroda performance every five days.  You really could not pitch much better than Kuroda did tonight but it still was not enough.   Although, note to the Yankees and their pitching staff...next time Miguel Cabrera walks up to the plate in a nationally televised game; please just WALK him!

If you said B you would also be incorrect.  Despite only giving up the one run it wasn't like the Tiger pitchers shut down the Yankee bats.  The Yankees actually had 9 hits and drew 5 walks.  They also had 5 stolen bases.  So getting on base was not the problem, which leads me to the final choice...

If you chose C you would be CORRECT!  Once again, like a broken record that skips over and over again, the Yankees left men all over the base paths without driving them in.  The Yankees were 1-12 with runners-in-scoring-position.  If I wasn't a Yankee fan it would be comical how many baserunners they leave on, but I am a Yankee fan so it is not funny. 

The Yankees had so many opportunities to score in this game and they did not even need a base hit in every situation.  A simple deep fly or ground ball would have given us a few of those runs tonight.  The Yankees lost 4-3 but this game should not even have been close.  The way Kuroda pitched and having 12 runners on base, the Yankees should have had 7-8 runs and we would be talking about winning this series against the Tigers.  Instead, the Yankees face Justin Verlander on his home court this afternoon while we send Phil Hughes to the mound.  Let's hope that Hughes can give us one of his top performances today and the Yankees can find a way to scratch and claw a few runs across against the best starting pitcher in baseball.  Game time:  1:05pm (EST).

--Mikey Blue, BYB Senior Writer
Email: DonnieBaseball2323@gmail.com
Twitter: @MikeyBlu23


ORDER A BYB SHIRT NOW, DROB WEARS ONE! Also, Please comment, we have DISQUS, it's easier than ever. Let me know what you think and follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue on Facebook, just type it in.