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No matter how many good days the Yankees bullpen stacks up the rest of the way, there will have been enough bad ones to create nightmares about what could happen in October.
Count Tuesday among the latter, disastrously so.
Together, Fernando Cruz and Mark Leiter Jr. gave up nine runs while recording no outs in an historically bad seventh inning, turning a tie game into a blowout 12-2 loss to the Tigers on a crisp night at Yankee Stadium.
It got ugly in a hurry, as Cruz and Leiter combined to record four walks, allow four hits, hit a batter, toss a wild pitch and throw only 14 of their 36 pitches for strikes.
They became the first pair of Yankees pitchers ever to both give up four or more earned runs and not record an out and only the fifth pair of relievers ever to achieve the dubious distinction in the same game, according to Stathead.
The Tigers (83-62) sent 10 men to the plate before the Yankees recorded an out — courtesy of Tim Hill, with the crowd of 35,653 offering a Bronx cheer upon the completion of the Herculean feat — with the first nine of them coming around to score to blow open what had been a 2-2 game.
On a night when Aaron Judge passed Yogi Berra for fifth place on the franchise all-time home run list, with his 359th career blast, the Yankees ended up with a buzzkill to what had been a strong 4-2 start to their 12-game gauntlet against playoff contenders.
Will Warren had delivered another strong outing in his MLB-high 30th start of the year, tossing six innings of two-run ball — the 21st start in which he has allowed two earned runs or fewer — but it all went up in flames when he left the game.
Cruz, who had been mostly sharp since returning from the injured list, gave up a leadoff double to Riley Greene before issuing back-to-back walks to load the bases. Parker Meadows followed with a single to right field that made it a 3-2 game before Cruz walked a third batter to force in another run.
Leiter then entered and gave up a bloop single to no-man’s-land in shallow center field, hit the next batter on the foot with an errant splitter, walked Gleyber Torres, let in another run on a wild pitch and then got tagged for a two-run triple by Kerry Carpenter, at which point the Tigers led 10-2.
Hill was the third Yankees reliever of the frame and finally put out the fire, but long after it was too late to matter.
Before the night went awry, Judge put the Yankees ahead in the first inning by crushing a solo shot off Casey Mize that pulled him ahead of Berra in the record books.
The Yankees did not have another base runner until the fourth inning, when Cody Bellinger visited the second deck for his 28th home run of the year, which made it 2-0.
Warren had retired 11 straight batters before walking Spencer Torkelson to lead off the fifth inning. Naturally, it came back to haunt him as two batters later, he threw a 3-2 fastball at the top of the zone that Meadows drilled to right field for a two-run homer that tied the game.
The Yankees had a prime opportunity to take the lead back in the bottom of the fifth, but squandered it.
Their first two batters reached before Anthony Volpe popped out on a bunt attempt — drawing another round of boos for the struggling shortstop — Ryan McMahon struck out and Trent Grisham flied out on a 3-0 pitch.
