Aaron Hicks' two home runs lead Yankees to 8-6 victory versus Detroit

Ch Ch Ch Ch A A A-RON, is the sound Tigers fans are going to be hearing in their sleep tonight on Friday the 13th.  Comerica Park turned into a house of horrors for them as the Yankees’ bats came back to life resulting in a 8-6 victory.  Jordan Montgomery, coming off an unmemorable start against Baltimore, bounced back nicely in this victory.

Photo Credit: AP

After receiving a 5-0 lead in his last start, Monty quickly gave up four runs, as a result of not having command of his fastball.  However, on this evening after receiving a similar 5-0 lead, Monty was on the ball.  In fact, this evening he only had three, three-ball counts and had 14 first pitch strikes while facing 23 batters.  From the very beginning of this game, you could tell he was a different pitcher.

Detroit’s starter, Fiers was a different story. After a 1-2-3 first inning, which Monty matched, he ran into the Yankees hottest hitter in Gary Sanchez.  On the third pitch of the AB, Gary sent a rocket to right field, that even Castellanos had to duck to avoid getting his face shattered.  Next up to the plate was the player that will haunt Tiger fans tonight, Mr. Aaron Hicks. On the first pitch he saw, he sent a similar shot, this time lady luck had it ricochet in the Bombers' favor, resulting in everyone’s favorite play, the inside the park homerun.

Both pitchers quickly matched zeros for the next two innings, and then the 5th inning happened.  Miguel Andujar led off with a double, followed by a productive AB by Torreyes to advance Miggy. A hustling Gardner, on what would’ve been a bloop RBI single, extended it to a double. Judge followed with an RBI single against the shift. Stanton struck out, but Judge reached second safely for his second stolen base of the season. This would be key as Didi hit into what should have been a routine ground out, but a throwing error by the second baseman, resulted in Judge scoring from second making it 5-0. 

Monty surrendered a leadoff homer in the bottom half, but quickly made work of the next three batters, helping keep the momentum on the Yankees side. That momentum would indeed carry over as Mr. Hicks hit a leadoff HR, his second of the ballgame. 

The bottom half of the seventh saw Monty get into his first real trouble of the night, surrendering two back-to-back hits. A throwing error by Gardner, would allow a run to score easily, and Martinez to advance to third from second. A sacrifice fly would allow him to score from third, making it a 6-3 ballgame. After a nice attempt by Didi to get Machado at first, runners were on first and third, two outs, and a 2-2 count saw Mr. Houdini himself, David Robertson get out of trouble with a huge strikeout of Martin to end the inning. 

In the top of the eighth, after making a nice grab earlier, Andujar hit a leadoff triple, followed by Toe driving him in with an RBI single, his third hit of the evening, which is more offensive production from the second base position than the Yanks have had as of late.  They would eventually load the bases, with Didi driving in a run on a sac-fly making it 8-3, restoring the five-run lead. 

As Yankees fans have learned, just when you think things are going your way, they aren’t. Enter Dellin Betances. Coming in with a 8-3 lead, he quickly gave up a home run to make it 8-4, eventually unraveling even more like he has this season (8.10 ERA), making it a 8-6 game. Boone called for Chad Green, and got Machado looking on a 96 mph fastball to end the bleeding.

Chapman came in for the bottom of the ninth to seal the much needed victory for the Yankees.

What's next?

The Yankees will hope to build from this victory tomorrow as they send Luis Cessa to the mound against Francisco Liriano. First Pitch will be at 1:10pm

Winning Pitcher: Jordan Montgomery (1-0, 4.70 ERA) 6.0 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 4 K

Losing Pitcher: Mike Fiers (1-1, 3.86 ERA) 5.2 IP, 8 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 4 K
Save: Aroldis Chapman (2)

Notables:

Aaron Hicks:  2-3, 2 HR(2) , 2 BB. Hicks was the first Yankee to have an inside the park HR since Curtis Granderson (whom the Tigers traded to NYY) did it on 8/21/11, and the first Yankee to have an inside-the-park HR and conventional HR in the same game since 1956 (Hank Bauer). 

Aaron Judge: 1-4, RBI, R.  He extended his hitting streak to 11 games. 

Ronald Torreyes: 3-4 RBI. Look for Toe to be in the lineup tomorrow as Detroit has left hander Liriano on the mound. 

Miguel Andújar: 2-4, 1 2B, 1 3B, 2 R. Miggy had his first XBH's of the season tonight.

Article by: Andrew Rohloff

Follow @rocknrolloff Follow @BronxBomberBall