Yankees Rough Up Verlander, Then Win On Wild Pitch In 9th
NEW YORK (AP) -- Tigers manager Jim Leyland waved off the question about Delmon Young with a flick of the hand and a terse response.
Leyland was in no mood to talk about the stunning late-night arrest of his left fielder on a hate crime harassment charge after the Yankees rallied to beat Detroit 7-6 Friday. Derek Jeter scored the winning run on a passed ball with one out in the ninth inning.
"Get lost, get lost, get lost," Leyland snapped. "Do yourself a favor and get lost."
The Tigers came to New York having lost six of seven at home and a day after they cut popular infielder Brandon Inge, Detroit's longest-tenured player. The arrest of Young early Friday eclipsed those issues.
Young was arrested at 2:30 a.m. -- four hours after the team arrived in New York -- for a fight at his hotel during which police say he yelled anti-Semitic epithets. He faces a misdemeanor aggravated harassment charge that entails targeting someone for his or her religious beliefs. If convicted, he could face up to a year in jail.
His jersey hung in his locker and his batting helmet was in its cubby in the Detroit dugout, but Young was not at the ballpark for the first meeting between the teams since the Tigers won Game 5 of their AL division series last fall in New York. Young hit three home runs in that series.
On a 46-degree night more reminiscent of last October than late April, the Yankees took advantage of Justin Verlander, who was hardly at his best in the frigid conditions despite reaching 98 mph -- in the sixth inning. They roughed up Detroit's ace for five runs, four earned, but Verlander said Young's situation was not a distraction.
"I wasn't worried about what was going on," Verlander said. "I had to worry about pitching against the New York Yankees."
The Tigers failed to hold a 6-4 lead. Don Kelly misplayed a line drive to left for a run-scoring error in the sixth, and Mark Teixeira had a tying sacrifice fly against Joaquin Benoit in the eighth before a wild ninth.
Jeter drew a one-out walk from Brayan Villarreal (0-1) and went to third when Villarreal threw a wild pitch on ball four to Curtis Granderson. With Alex Rodriguez up, Villarreal's 2-0 pitch glanced off catcher Alex Avila's glove and Jeter barely beat Avila's throw to Villarreal at the plate.
"I just missed it," Avila said.
Rodriguez hit his 633rd homer in the fourth and had two RBIs, but his biggest play was waving Jeter home.
"I'm at third. When Aviles turns around, I couldn't see it," Jeter said. "You really can't see where the ball is. I saw Alex."
Mariano Rivera (1-1), the fourth Yankees reliever, worked a perfect ninth for the win. The bullpen pitched 3 2-3 scoreless innings.
Russell Martin hit a two-run homer and the Yankees bullpen held steady when Ivan Nova turned in the latest shaky performance by a New York starter.
Martin connected in the fifth to give New York a 4-3 lead. But Prince Fielder had a run-scoring single -- one of two RBIs -- and Austin Jackson's two-run double in the sixth put Detroit back on top. Jackson had four hits.
Jeter went 0 for 4 to snap his 15-game hitting streak. For Detroit, Miguel Cabrera got his 1,000th career RBI with a single in the third.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi was ejected by plate umpire Joe West in the seventh for arguing balls and strikes, his first of the season and 15th of his career as a manager.
Nova was knocked around for 11 hits and six runs in 5 1-3 innings. But he benefited from another strong offensive effort, keeping intact his string of 15 straight wins in the regular season. He allowed the leadoff batter to reach in five of his six innings.
Detroit struggled, though, leaving 10 on base in the first six innings.
A-Rod singled in a run in the first for the early lead, but Nova walked Kelly leading off the second. Brad Eldred then hit a soft liner to left that got past a diving Raul Ibanez for a triple -- his first hit in the majors since July 20, 2010, for Colorado.
Verlander struck out four, the first time this season he did not fan at least seven. As dominant as the reigning AL MVP and Cy Young Award winner has been, he entered 0-2 with a 4.00 ERA at the new Yankee Stadium in three starts.
The Tigers had four straight singles to start the third, with Cabrera and Fielder driving in runs.
Nick Swisher hit a two-out double in the sixth and scored when Kelly misplayed Ibanez's liner to left field for an error, pulling New York to 6-5. Leyland said Kelly lost the ball in the lights.
"To be able to come back a couple of times on this guy and score some runs is not easy to do," Girardi said of facing Verlander.
NOTES: The Yankees held a moment of silence for Moose Skowron, who helped the team win four World Series titles in the 1950s and 1960s. Skowron died Friday of congestive heart failure in Illinois. He was 81. ... Leyland said LHP Duane Below will start Monday and starter Doug Fister (side injury) was feeling good a day after a throwing session. Fister will most likely need some sort of rehabilitation start before returning to the Tigers. ... Cabrera has hits in 29 of 31 games against New York.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
