Tigers' Fulmer continues stellar scoreless streak
NEW YORK -- Michael Fulmer continued his impressive run Sunday when he pitched six effective innings and won his fifth straight start as the Detroit Tigers defeated the New York Yankees 4-1.
Fulmer (7-1) ran his scoreless streak to 28 1/3 innings by holding the Yankees to two hits. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it is just shy of the Detroit rookie record set by John Hiller, who had 28 2/3 scoreless innings Aug. 10-29, 1967.
The right-hander also has allowed one earned run in his last 34 1/3 innings, giving him an earned run average of 0.26 in his last five starts and lowering his overall earned run average from 6.52 to 2.52.
He only allowed a leadoff single to Aaron Hicks and a bloop double to Austin Romine that started the fifth. He also allowed four other base runners by issuing three walks and hitting Chase Headley with a pitch in the fourth.
The fifth was Fulmer's most challenging inning. Fulmer threw 29 pitches, including 10 to Brett Gardner, who walked but with the bases loaded, but he only needed two pitches to retire Carlos Beltran on a fly ball to right-center field.
Fulmer then needed nine pitches to finish the sixth before Shane Greene took over. Greene pitched a scoreless seventh, Justin Wilson gave up a two-out RBI single to Headley and Francisco Rodriguez notched his 19th save with a scoreless ninth.
Fulmer exited with a 2-0 lead thanks to a Nick Castellanos sacrifice fly in the fourth and an RBI groundout by Victor Martinez in the fifth. Detroit pushed its lead to 4-0 in the seventh on Ian Kinsler's two-run home run off Anthony Swarzak.
Detroit won for the sixth time in eight games and also saw Miguel Cabrera reach a milestone in his first at-bat. Cabrera doubled to deep center field off Michael Pineda (3-7) and became the seventh active player to reach 2,400 hits and the fifth-youngest (33 years, 55 days) according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Pineda turned in a decent outing, allowing two runs and six hits in six innings. He reached a high pitch count and was unable to complete seven innings after doing so for the first time since July 4 last Tuesday against the Los Angeles Angels.
Detroit opened the fourth by loading the bases on three singles and took a 1-0 lead when Cabrera scored on Castellanos' sacrifice fly to center field. Pineda allowed another single but escaped by getting a diving stop from shortstop Didi Gregorius on Jarrod Saltalamacchia's liner and getting a strikeout of Mike Aviles.
The Tigers had first and third with nobody out in the fifth when Ian Kinsler walked and Cameron Maybin chopped a single to left field. Detroit took a 2-0 lead when Martinez hit a soft grounder under first baseman Rob Refsnyder to second baseman Starlin Castro as Kinsler scored.
NOTES: The Yankees held their 70th annual Old Timers Day celebration with several members of the 1996 World Series championship team in attendance. Also present was 2009 World Series MVP Hideki Matsui, who reached the second deck in batting practice. The ceremonies ended with a moment of silence for Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra, who passed away last September. ... The Tigers had a slightly different starting lineup Sunday as C Jarrod Saltalamacchia and SS Mike Aviles were in for C James McCann and SS Jose Iglesias, respectively. ... Before getting the save Saturday, Tigers RHP Francisco Rodriguez had not pitched in a week and manager Brad Ausmus said he was planning on using him regardless of the situation.