DETROIT -- The New York Yankees seemed to be as inspired Wednesday night by "Wee" Willie Keeler, one of their first Hall of Famers, as they were by one of their future Cooperstown inductees, Derek Jeter.
The Yankees, like Keeler, a 5-foot-4 spray hitter, were "hitting them where they ain't" against Detroit Tigers left-hander David Price. They slapped, dumped and grounded balls through holes in the infield and into outfield spaces for an amazing nine consecutive hits in the third inning of an 8-4 win.
New York had not scored before the third inning, and never scored again. But the eight-run inning was all it needed to even the three-game series that concludes at 1 p.m., Thursday, with FOX Sports Detroit coverage beginning at noon with Tigers Live.
The Yankees, according to mlb.com, came up one hit shy of the American League record 10 straight hits -- which was set on Sept. 20, 1983 by Detroit. The Tigers had an 11-run first inning in that one, and drove Baltimore Orioles starter Dennis Martinez from the mound with Alan Trammell and Enos Cabell both contributing two hits during the streak.
Yankees center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury led off the third inning Wednesday night at Comerica Park with a single and ended the streak at nine with a sacrifice fly. Jeter and Mark Teixeira both had opposite-field doubles that they lashed and looped toward the corner, and the rest of the hits in the streak were singles. After Brett Gardner's infield single, Price smirked in disbelief.
No. 9 hitter Francisco Cervelli was the next batter, and he hit a single through the hole at shortstop to make it nine hits in a row. Tigers manager Brad Ausmus removed Price, the 2012 American League Cy Young Award winner, at that juncture.
But through it all, Price showed no disgust or frustration. He didn't kick dirt or look to the heavens for help. He just kept backing up throws from the outfield at third base and home plate, and going back to work on the mound. And when his night was over, he sat or stood calmly in the dugout and watched reliever Blaine Hardy get three consecutive outs.
"You've got to give him the benefit of the doubt," Ausmus said of Price. "He's a horse. But he was running out of steam. And he carried himself like he did when he was winning, 8-0. He's very steady. He doesn't show over-frustration. There's a reason he's good, and that's part of it."
Price was asked how he was able to keep his composure in a game that matched his career-high of eight runs allowed on April 7, 2013 against Cleveland while pitching for Tampa Bay.
"I've had bad games before," explained Price, "but not that bad. That was the worst start of my life. But I'm not going to lose my love for baseball. Things just didn't go my way. That's life; that's baseball.
"I'm human. I have bad games."
Price had a 2.35 ERA in four previous starts for Detroit, which obtained him in a three-team trade four weeks ago. And he'd posted quality starts in 15 of his last 16 outings.
"It was just an off night," said Ausmus. "He left some balls up in the strike zone...They hit some balls hard, and they hit some balls not so hard."
Despite leaving balls up where they became hittable, only 10 of the 12 hits the Yankees got off Price in his two complete innings were extra-base hits. Price had exited earlier once in six years as a starter, and that was a 1 1/3 inning stint on July 4, 2009 at Texas against the Rangers.
Hardy, who got the bullpen off to its stretch of seven scoreless innings with only two hits allowed, never expected to be warming up in the third inning with Price starting.
"It was tough to see him go through a stretch like that," said Hardy. "They were getting hits that -- I don't want to say they were cheap hits -- but hits that are usually outs."
But hits all look the same in the box score, and the Yankees came up three shy of the major league record for consecutive hits shared by the 1920 St. Louis Cardinals and 1930 Brooklyn Robins, according to mlb.com.
They became the first AL team to string together nine consecutive hits since the Tigers on April 16, 1996 at Toronto.
But the Yankees came up one short of Detroit's AL record of 10 consecutive hits.
In that record-setting game 31 years ago at Tiger Stadium, Martinez got leadoff hitter Lou Whitaker to ground out. But the next dozen Tigers reached base with two walks and 10 hits. Hall of Famer Jim Palmer relieved Martinez after five consecutive run-scoring hits, and then Palmer gave up a three-run homer to Whitaker and a two-run homer to Larry Herndon for the 10th consecutive hit.
Palmer finally struck out Kirk Gibson, who had one of two RBI-triples in the inning, to end the streak.
As bad as that game was for Palmer and Martinez, who combined to win 513 games in the majors, the Orioles would go onto win the World Series one month later.
So, there's a lesson in this that was not lost on Price, who said, "It's one game. It's one game. We can come back tomorrow and win, and win the series."
