Tigers' J.D. Martinez hit three homers in six innings against Yanks
NEW YORK (AP) -- J.D. Martinez hit three homers and had six RBIs, and the Detroit Tigers busted out for a 12-4 victory Sunday over the New York Yankees to snap a four-game skid.
Victor Martinez homered and drove in four two-out runs off Masahiro Tanaka for Detroit, which matched a season high for runs after being outscored 21-5 by New York in the first two games of the series. Andrew Romine hit Jose De Paula's first major league pitch for a solo shot in the sixth, his first long ball this season.
Anibal Sanchez (6-7) lost his scoreless streak at 21 2-3 innings when Brian McCann homered with one out in the second. But the Tigers' right-hander was steady for seven innings to earn his third straight win. He yielded seven hits and three runs in handing the Yankees only their second loss in 13 home games.
J.D. Martinez connected off Tanaka (4-3) with two outs in the first. He struck out looking in the third and led off the fifth with another homer against the Japanese right-hander, who allowed three long balls for the first time in his big league career.
J.D. Martinez then went deep off Danny Burawa with two on in the sixth to give the Tigers an 11-2 lead. Burawa was making his major league debut.
With a chance to tie the major league record for homers in a game, J.D. Martinez flied out to right in the eighth.
It was the first multihomer game of his career and the first three-homer game for Detroit since Miguel Cabrera did it at Texas on May 19, 2013.
J.D. Martinez became the first Tigers player to connect three times against the Yankees since Charlie Maxwell in 1959.
Stephen Drew had his third multihomer game this year for the Yankees, connecting in seventh off Sanchez and ninth against Joakim Soria.
Tanaka gave up a career high-tying 10 hits and seven runs in five innings. He fell to 2-2 since his return from the disabled list on June 3.
After Tanaka got two quick outs to open the game, Cabrera singled and Victor Martinez sent a drive into the second deck in right field. Yoenis Cespedes reached on shortstop Didi Gregorius' ninth error of the season before J.D. Martinez went deep.
Victor Martinez had a two-run single in the second after Cabrera walked with two outs.
Cespedes added an RBI single.
Alex Rodriguez singled in the eighth for his 3,003rd hit. He is 8 for 17 (.471) with two homers and eight RBIs in the first five games of this eight-game homestand.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Tigers: 3B Nick Castellanos was out of the starting lineup for a second straight day. He's batting .143 (9 for 63) over his last 19 games.
Yankees: CF Jacoby Ellsbury (knee) did some straight ahead running on the outfield grass and ran some short routes to make barehanded, over-the-shoulder catches of tossed baseballs. ... LHP Jacob Lindgren, who made his major league debut May 25 and was sent back to Triple-A on June 13, will have surgery to remove a bone spur from his elbow.
UP NEXT
Tigers: Continue their seven-game road trip in Cleveland. LHP Kyle Ryan (1-1) gave up five hits over 6 1-3 innings in his first start in place of Shane Greene, who was recently demoted. But three of the hits were home runs.
Yankees: RHP Michael Pineda (8-3) took a no-hitter into the seventh inning in his last start. He faces the Phillies, the team that has scored the fewest runs in baseball this season, in the opener of an interleague series in New York.
