Avila's RBI Single in 9th Secures Win for Detroit

  

Avila the hero for DET vs. NY. Photo Credit: David Maxwell/Getty Images

 Alex Avila’s two out walk-off single off Shawn Kelley (2-5) in the 9th inning drove in Victor Martinez for the game winning run as the Detroit Tigers defeated the New York Yankees 3-2.

By: Sunil Sunderraj

Avila drove a deep fly ball off the right field wall just past a leaping Ichiro Suzuki, which insured the Tigers of a series win.

The Tigers jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 2nd inning. Back to back singles by Castellanos and Don Kelly to start the inning followed by an Avila sacrifice fly to center field brought in Castellanos from third.

The Yankees tied up the game in the 3rd inning on a Jacoby Ellsbury single that plated Zelous Wheeler who reached on a single and throwing error by Castellanos to advance to second.

New York went ahead for the first time in the 4th inning on an RBI ground out by Brian McCann. That was setup by Prado leading off the inning with a single to left field. Carlos Beltran then promptly doubled down the left field line.

In the 5th inning, Detroit tied up the game at 2-2. courtesy of a Rajai Davis RBI single that drove in Kelly.

Victor Martinez led off the ninth with a leadoff double down the right field line on an over shift defensive alignment by New York. The ball skipped by Martin Prado into the corner into the right field corner. Kelly issued a walk to J.D. Martinez but rebounded to strike out Nick Castellanos and pinch hitter Torii Hunter before surrendering the game winning hit to Avila.

Hideki Kuroda kept Detroit at bay most of the game pitching seven innings, while allowing two runs on four hits while striking out four. This marked the third game Kuroda has went six plus innings while yielding two runs or less. On the other hand Lobstein of the Tigers limited New York to two runs with only one earned on four hits while pitching six innings.

After going 8 for 14 with runners in scoring position on Wednesday night, the Yankees were a woeful 1 for 4.

Since the third inning outburst against David Price, New York has scored just two runs in their last 15 innings.

Before the game, Masahiro Tanaka pitched simulated game throwing 49 pitches. New York moves on to Toronto for a three game set where in the opener on Friday night Chris Capuano(1-3) opposes Mark Buehrle(11-8).