Yankees' Gleyber Torres comes up big in win over Tigers

by Felix Pantaleón

Yankees rookie Gleyber Torres had the go-ahead, two-run hit in the eighth inning that propelled his club to a 7-5 win over the Tigers at Yankee Stadium on Friday night.

NEW YORK — Somewhere, Andrew McCutchen, his face freshly shaven for the first time in a decade, had to be cheesing.

Sure, he was set to meet his new teammates Saturday, and that would be exciting. But he’d be doing it fresh after their riveting, late-game win.

Gleyber Torres’ bases-loaded single to left field — misplayed badly by the Tigers — in the eighth inning gave the Yankees a 7-5 victory at Yankee Stadium on a cool Friday night.

Torres hit a hard, low liner to left field. Niko Goodrum dived forward.

It one-hopped off his glove and went spinning into the air, leaving plenty of time for two runs to score and for a 5-4 deficit to turn into a one-run lead for the Yankees, who watched manager Aaron Boone get ejected in the fifth inning for doing something ridiculous and Luis Severino being simply OK against a team that’s 27 games under .500.

What it means

The Yankees snapped a two-game losing streak. They rebounded from a heart-breaking loss in the ninth inning Thursday.

They started the day 8 1/2 games back of the top-spot Red Sox in the American League East and 4 1/2 games up on the Athletics to host the Wild Card.

David Robertson got the save despite letting the leadoff hitter reach second base.

Austin Romine, a day before Gary Sanchez was set to come off the disabled list, contributed an RBI single to push the Yankees ahead by two runs in the eighth.

Not great Britton

Reliever Zach Britton had a bad night, once again looking nothing like the former star the Yankees hoped they were getting.

He gave up a go-ahead run in the eighth-inning, loading the bases with two singles and a walk and no outs for Ronny Rodriguez to hit a sacrifice fly to deep center field. Hicks didn’t try to throw out Goodrum, putting the Tigers up, 5-4.

Ejection, eruption

In the fifth inning, Boone, fed up with plate umpire Nic Lentz’s strike zone, got thrown out for arguing.

What he did next had probably never been seen before.

Boone squatted behind home plate like a catcher and showed Lentz how he believed Detroit catcher James McCann moved his glove, demonstrating that Lentz called a strike when it should have been a ball.

Boone also twice got in Lentz’s face, screaming expletives at him, behind calmly walking off the field and into the dugout.

That set off a chain of explosions that got the Yankees back in the game and gave them the lead.

In the sixth inning, Gardner cranked a one-out, two-run shot into the right-field second deck to make it 3-2 Tigers. It followed Austin Romine’s reach-via-error and Ronald Torreyes’ fielder’s choice groundball.

Then, after Giancarlo Stanton flied out, Aaron Hicks and Miguel Andujar crushed consecutive solo shots to give the Yankees a 4-3 advantage.

The Tigers responded immediately, however.

Jonathan Holder, relieving Severino, allowed a pair of singles. When Zach Britton took over for him, Mikie Mahtook singled on a line drive to right field. Neil Walker had no chance at getting JaCoby Jones at home, and he scored easily to tie the game, but Walker threw out Jeimer Candelario at third base by plenty, ending the frame.

Severino solid

Severino continued to try climbing back into ace form. Didn’t quite work, but he gave the Yankees a chance.

The right-hander lasted six innings, giving up three runs while striking out 10 and walking none. Severino held the Tigers scoreless through three innings before Niko Goodrum crushed a solo shot to left-center. In the fifth, Jim Adduci’s triple, which should have been called a double, brought in two runs and set the Yankees back, 3-zip.

Next

Yankees righty Masahiro Tanaka (9-5, 3.97 ERA) vs. Tigers pitcher yet to be announced at 4:05 p.m. Friday at Yankee Stadium.

Brendan Kuty may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook.