Garcia Shelled, Yankees lose 7-5

The Tigers (11-10) really gave it to the Yankees (11-9) on Saturday afternoon beating them 7-5. Yankees starter Freddy Garcia looked awful, and didn’t manage to get past the second inning for the second start in row.  Rookie Tigers starter Drew Smyly was stellar in his outing against the Yanks. He breezed through the Yankee lineup, only gave up one run on two hits in six innings and struck out seven.

The Tigers hammered Freddy Garcia early on. In the first inning Garcia found himself in trouble after walking lead-off man Austin Jackson and then walking Prince Fielder later in the inning. Andy Dirks made Garcia pay with a 3-run shot over the right field wall, his first homer of the season. In the second inning the Tigers were at it again, Alex Avila and Austin Jackson both singled which led to a Brennan Boesch RBI double, which was followed with a 2-run Miguel Cabrera single. The Tigers were now up 6-1 after two innings of play. Miguel Cabrera would add a solo homer in the eighth, his seventh. Garcia went 1 2/3 innings, gave up six runs on five hits.

Three of the Yankee runs came off solo home runs. Nick Swisher hit two, one in the first inning off Smyly and one in the ninth off Jose Valverde. Swisher now has six home runs and 23 RBIs on the season. Curtis Granderson hit one to right field in the seventh inning off Phil Coke, his seventh. In the ninth the Yankees rallied off closer Jose Valverde, following the Swisher home run, the Yankees would add two more thanks to a Curtis Granderson RBI single and a Raul Ibanez RBI double.

Some good news for the Yankees; the bullpen looked fantastic again. In 7 1/3 innings work, Clay Rapada, David Phelps and Cody Eppley only gave up a combined one run on two hits.

The Yankees will play the Tigers in the rubber matchup of the three game series on Sunday. C.C. Sabathia (2-0 5.27) will start for the Yankees while Max Scherzer (1-2 8.24) gets the nod for the Tigers. Pregame starts at 12:30, first pitch at 1:05 right here on 104.5 The Team ESPN Radio.