The New York Yankees entered Tuesday night with everything to play for — just two games back of the AL East-leading Blue Jays and clinging to the top Wild Card spot by a single game over the Red Sox.
For six innings, they looked the part of a contender. Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger both went deep. Rookie starter Will Warren turned in six solid innings, giving up just two runs. The Bronx Bombers were in position to grab a key late-season win.
And then came the seventh inning.
The Seventh Inning Collapse
Fernando Cruz took the mound, and what followed was one of the ugliest collapses in modern Yankees history.
By the time the inning ended, nine Detroit Tigers had crossed the plate. Every single hitter in their lineup scored at least once. The Yankees’ relievers surrendered runs in nearly every way imaginable: walks, a hit-by-pitch, a wild pitch, a triple, and a barrage of hits.
Cruz didn’t record an out while giving up four runs. Mark Leiter Jr., the next man in, also didn’t get an out and matched Cruz with four runs of his own.
Manager Aaron Boone called it “just a rough inning.” Warren, watching helplessly from the dugout, admitted, “I haven’t seen anything like that before.”
Rare and Embarrassing History
Baseball historians quickly pointed out how rare and ugly this collapse really was.
- According to Stathead’s Katie Sharp, no team since 1912 had allowed a run in a single inning via a walk, hit-by-pitch, wild pitch, and triple — until the Yankees did it Tuesday.
- In the past 75 years, only one other team had two relievers each allow four or more runs in the same inning without recording an out. Now, Cruz and Leiter join that infamous list.
- According to Greg Harvey, the Yankees became just the fifth team since 1950 to see two pitchers combine for four or more earned runs each without recording an out in the same inning.
Bullpen Problems Exposed
The meltdown didn’t happen in a vacuum. The Yankees’ bullpen has been shaky all season, owning a 4.40 ERA that ranks among the worst in baseball. Cruz and Leiter only poured gasoline on an already smoldering fire.
Cruz threw 20 pitches, only seven for strikes. Leiter? Sixteen pitches, just seven strikes. Simply put, they couldn’t find the zone, and the Tigers made them pay.
The final score — 12-2, Tigers — felt less like a loss and more like a gut punch. One bad inning won’t define the season, but it laid bare a truth Yankees fans already feared: without bullpen answers, this team’s October dreams may go up in smoke.
