Yankees lose 4-2 as Tigers snap seven-game slide

DETROIT – Derek Jeter believes he’s closer than ever toAuthentic NFL Jerseys breaking out of his early spring malaise. Maybe one game-breaking hit will trigger that long-awaited avalanche of deep line drives, but the hopeful Yankees captain never got his chance to be a ninth-inning hero Tuesday night.
Representing the tying run, Russell Martin grounded into a double play to seal a 4-2 Tigers’ win at Comerica Park, snapping Detroit’s seven-game losing streak.

On a raw, damp night, CC Sabathia (2-2) didn’t have a good feel for his pitches and yielded four runs in seven innings.

Plus, two baserunning gaffes by Robinson Cano and Aaron Rodgers JerseysJorge Posada erased any chance of scoring off tiring Detroit starter Brad Penny (2-3) in the sixth.

Jeter (1-for-4) missed a scoring chance, grounding out with two runners on base to end the second inning. He enters tonight’s game just as he did Tuesday’s, with a .250 batting average and just two extra-base hits – both doubles.

“That’s the one part that you say, ‘You know we’ve got to start driving the ball,’” Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long said before the game. “And that comes from using your lower half … hip torque.”

Afterward, Jeter admitted that he “was thinking too much” instead of reacting during his April at-bats, which isB.J. Raji Jerseys a product of the swing alterations he’d made with Long.

During spring training, Jeter tried a complete no-stride approach. But that caused him to rely more on his arms instead of his legs. Now, “I sort of went back to some old ways,” he said. “I adjusted to having more time [to see pitches], and I had to adjust back to how I used to be.

“It’s taken awhile, but right now I feel good [and] I’ve been using my legs a lot better.”

Jeter led off Tuesday’s game with a sharp single to center, but grounded out his next two at-bats against Penny. In his first 100 at-bats entering Tuesday, Jeter had hit 65 grounders and 11 of his 25 hits were infield singles.

With a man on first, Jeter lined out to first base against lefty reliever Daniel Schlereth to end the seventh. It still was an encouraging at-bat for Jeter, who feels he’s at his best when lining pitches the other way.

“When I come to the stadium, I don’t try to think about what’s already happened,” Jeter said. “I can’t change what happened in the first month of the season. Yeah, I didn’t swing the bat well.”
Manager Joe Girardi has pledged plenty of rope for Jeter.

“I don’t really want to judge a guy on one-sixth of his at-bats,” Girardi said.

Meanwhile, Long hasn’t been alarmed by Jeter’s rash of grounders.

“There hasn’t been something forherve leger on sale
me that [makes] you go, ‘Oh no, there’s something wrong with Derek,’” Long said.

Detroit has its own puzzle in Magglio Ordonez, who doubled his seasonal RBI total on a first-inning groundout, after Austin Jackson and Scott Sizemore each doubled to start the inning.
Just recalled from Class AAA Toledo, Sizemore saw his hit glance off the glove of center fielder Curtis Granderson. Miguel Cabrera’s sac fly made it 2-0.

Detroit tallied twice in the fifth on Jackson’s RBI triple and Sizemore’s RBI single to open a 4-1 lead, before Girardi intentionally walked Cabrera with first base occupied. That loaded the bases, but the strategy worked as the Yankees got two outs to end the threat.

In six innings, Penny allowed just an unearned run on Martin’s fourth-inning RBI double. With runners at second and third, Andruw Jones was cut down by right fielder Casper Wells while attempting to score on bandage dress
Brett Gardner’s fly out.

Mark Teixeira hit a solo homer in the eighth, his eighth of the year, off Schlereth. But Monday night’s losing pitcher, Jose Valverde, closed it out in the ninth.