Yankees' Aaron Boone praises bullpen despite disaster vs. Tigers

Yankees manager Aaron Boone (17) takes the ball from relief pitcher

Through the first six innings of the New York Yankees’ Tuesday night contest against the Detroit Tigers, they were actually holding their own against the AL Central leader. The Yankees actually scored the first two runs of the game before the Tigers tied it at 2-2 in the fifth, with the game looking like a gritty, low-scoring affair between two teams that are still jockeying for playoff positioning. But then everything went off the rails for the Yankees in the top of the seventh, with their bullpen allowing nine runs in a single inning.

There was a stretch in the seventh where the Yankees cannot get any outs, with Fernando Cruz and Mark Leiter Jr. seemingly forgetting how to pitch at a big-league level. Nonetheless, manager Aaron Boone still gave them a vote of confidence even though they had a nightmare trip to the mound.

“[My confidence in the bullpen is] still good. Cruzer has been great. It happens,” Boone said, per Max Goodman of NJ.com. “And I think Leiter, we need to get him more in the mix here in some of these situations. So, we have the guys down there to get it done. We just gotta sync it up. Like, 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.

Yankees’ bullpen puts on a nightmare outing in loss to Tigers

Yankees' Aaron Boone praises bullpen despite disaster vs. Tigers — © Brad Penner-Imagn Images

Cruz, after the Yankees brought him in, in order, allowed a ground rule double, two consecutive walks to load the bases, a run-scoring single from Parker Meadows, and yet another walk that forced in a run. He left the game with the score at 4-2.

Leiter then came into the game and proceeded to make everything worse. When he came on to relieve Cruz, there was no relief to be had after he allowed a run-scoring single from Trey Sweeney, hit Colt Keith with a pitch to force in a run, allowed Gleyber Torres to earn a walk to score another run for the Tigers, allowed Sweeney to come home via a wild pitch, and then, for his final batter faced, he allowed Kerry Carpenter to hit a two-run double — leaving the game with the Tigers now up by eight runs, 10-2.

Even Carpenter, the last baserunner that Leiter allowed, came around to score even when Tim Hill came on for the Yankees.

This cannot happen when the stakes are this high, but the Yankees can at least put this in the rearview mirror and move on to the next one.