Yanks' relief collapses as Tigers reel off 9-run 7th

NEW YORK -- For six innings on Tuesday, the New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers played a clean, tight baseball game suitable for a potential postseason preview. Then the Yankees crumbled spectacularly, allowing the Tigers to pull away in a nine-run seventh inning en route to a 12-2 win.

Right-handed relievers Fernando Cruz and Mark Leiter Jr. were charged with a combined nine earned runs without recording an out, becoming the first pair of major league teammates to each face at least four batters and not secure an out since 2003, according to ESPN Research.

"Sometimes it doesn't go your way," Cruz said. "I was battling, obviously, there's no doubt. It's just one of those nights that we just need to forget. Come back tomorrow and do your job."

The loss, combined with the Toronto Blue Jays' comeback win over the Houston Astros, dropped the Yankees to three games behind Toronto for first place in the American League East. The Blue Jays hold the tiebreaker, meaning their division lead is essentially four games with 18 games remaining. Meanwhile, Detroit moved to 83-62, remaining a half-game behind the Blue Jays for the top seed in the American League.

The Tigers tallied the nine runs on five hits, five walks (one intentional) and a hit by pitch. Cruz threw 13 of his 20 pitches for balls. Leiter threw nine of his 16 out of the strike zone, including a wild pitch that allowed the sixth run of the inning to score. It was the first time the Yankees have surrendered at least six combined walks and hit batters in an inning since Sept. 2015.

Cruz relieved Yankees starter Will Warren, who held the Tigers to two runs over six innings. He surrendered a leadoff double to Riley Greene, gave up a single and issued three walks before exiting. He had been dominant since returning from the injured list in late August, yielding just one run with 11 strikeouts to one walk in 7⅔ innings across seven outings. His ERA ballooned from 2.66 to 3.76 with Tuesday's performance.

"This is a sport that, as you see, it's not as easy as it looks," Cruz said. "Sometimes you're on top of the horse. Sometimes you get out of it so you learn how to get on top again. It's just something that happens in baseball. You're never bigger than the game, and you always learn from failures."

Leiter Jr.'s outing began with shortstop Anthony Volpe being unable to make an over-the-shoulder catch on a blooper off Trey Sweeney's bat in shallow left field. He then hit a batter, walked another and surrendered a two-run triple to Kerry Carpenter to end his night.

"It's tough," Warren said of the nightmare inning. "I don't know what to say. I haven't seen anything like that before."

While Tuesday's seventh inning represents an extreme outlier, the Yankees bullpen's 5.05 ERA since Aug. 1 -- the day after the Yankees acquired three relievers at the trade deadline -- ranks 27th in the majors. Only three teams not in playoff contention -- the Minnesota Twins, Colorado Rockies and Miami Marlins -- have posted a worse mark over that stretch.

"We have the guys down there to get it done," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "We just got to sync it up. Tonight's a tough night, but it doesn't change a lot of the good things that have happened in some of these games we've been able to close out."