Cam Schlittler rocked in Yankees ugly loss to Tigers as skid reaches six
The Yankees cannot afford for a Spencer Jones home run robbery to transition into a home run gift.They cannot afford for Cam Schlittler to struggle to any degree, much less this degree.Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.
They cannot afford for José Caballero to throw wide of Anthony Volpe, erasing a possible double play and allowing a pair of runners to remain on base, both of whom would score.Given their sudden offensive ineptitude and that Tarik Skubal was the opposing starter, the Yankees’ defense and pitching needed to flirt with perfection to give them a chance.The flirtation was over within minutes.A rough first inning put the Yankees in a four-run hole, which felt more like a four-run canyon, in what would become a 9-3 smacking by the Tigers in front of 37,211 frustrated, booing fans in The Bronx on Tuesday.The Yankees (48-37) have dropped a season-high six straight games, are doing nothing right, hitting particularly wrong and hearing from the crowd after each mistake.
They have finished June swooning.Never in the Yankees’ century-plus of baseball had they been held to three or fewer hits in four straight games before their four games from Friday through Monday.They managed to snap this streak Tuesday — only because a couple of garbage-time knocks in the ninth doubled their hit output to four.They finished with one hit in six innings against Skubal, who upstaged Schlittler (four innings, six runs on four homers) in a matchup that was far more appealing on paper than on the field.Ben Rice cranked a home run in the bottom of the first, but the next 13 Yankees were retired by Skubal, who sure looked like the prize of the trade deadline.But then again, Detroit’s Casey Mize (seven scoreless, one-hit innings) looked like a Cy Young candidate Monday.
Just like Boston’s Sonny Gray (7 ¹/₃ scoreless, one-hit innings) looked like a superstar Sund...