Tigers vs Yankees Saturday in Bronx

Last time out, it was a nasty cutter that struck out the risky Mark Trumbo twice with the bases loaded in Baltimore.

NY and Detroit both rank near the bottom of the league in walks.

The duo has scored in the same game 13 times this season and not surprisingly, the Yankees have won 12 of those games.

NY filled his roster spot by recalling right-hander Chad Green from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

“Our job is to get on base and when we’re getting on base and giving those guys behind us RBI opportunities, good things happen”, Gardner said Wednesday. “I just think that offensively we’re swinging the bats different in this stretch and that’s the difference”. Beltran drove in 10 runs during a four-game sweep of the Angels before this series.

This should be a close game regardless of who wins, but the Yankees have a slight advantage since they are the home club. NY has now won three of four meetings against Detroit this season.

And after a stellar outing from CC Sabathia, the Yankees found a way to win their fifth straight game in a 4-0 shutout at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi spent a moment summing up No. 1 starter Masahito Tanaka’s season before Saturday night’s game at Yankee Stadium, one in which the Japanese righty has had a bunch of solid starts yet very few victories to show for it.

The Tigers began a 10-game trip by losing for the second straight time following a five-game winning streak. After the Yankees took an 4-0 lead in the third on Carlos Beltran’s RBI single, which occurred one pitch after Detroit catcher James McCann’s two-base error on a pickoff attempt of Brett Gardner, Sabathia stranded two in the fourth, retired Cabrera on a double play to end the fifth and cruised through his final two innings. “When you’ve got that pedigree in you, the career and the statistics he has, it’s not an accident”. “Everyone’s going to have their off days”.

When the Yankees hit at least one home run, they are 21-17. However, Sabathia has also only given up two home runs all year which means his home runs per nine innings is 0.3. He is hitless in his last 15 at-bats against Sabathia since April 29, 2011.

The Yankees’ offense jumped all over a struggling Mike Pelfrey early in the game.

Verlander won his only start at old Yankee Stadium on August 16, 2007, when he allowed three runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings of an 8-5 victory.

CARDINALS 9, PIRATES 3: Pitcher Adam Wainwright, pinch-hitting because the Cardinals were out of positon players, hit a two-run, two-out double to spark a six-run 12th inning as St. Louis beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-3 on Friday night.

“It’s big for us”, Yankees left-hander CC Sabathia said. After posting a subpar ERA of 4.78 while leading the league in earned runs with 112 in 2013, Sabathia was limited to just eight starts in all of 2014 while dealing with complications in his right knee. Blake Wood (5-1) pitched two innings in relief of Anthony DeSclafani, who made his first start since returning from an oblique injury.