McCarthy, Offense Struggle in 5-2 Loss to Tigers

Jacoby Ellsbury went 3-for-4 with two solo home runs and Derek Jeter added a couple of more hits, but since Brandon McCarthy surrendered five earned runs in a rough 6 1/3 innings and Detroit's offense stayed hot the Yankees fell to the Tigers last night, 5-2, in the series opener at Comerica Park. 

For most of his outing yesterday, interestingly, McCarthy actually hung around, keeping the game at 2-1 through five despite his overall bad control. 

Nonetheless, in the bottoms of the sixth and seventh the usually-good veteran finally broke, surrendering three runs on five knocks in those frames to put the contest out of reach.

No, McCarthy wasn't necessarily terrible in his thirteenth loss of the season, but yes, he did give up 9 hits, an unfortunate stat that essentially made the aforementioned homers by Ellsbury worthless. 

Also, as you can see by that final score, it greatly assisted Tigers Starter Rick Porcello in his efforts to get the win, something he'd eventually do with a dominant 8-inning performance in which Ellsbury's blasts to right were the only bad spots. 

Note: For Ellsbury, his shots in this one brought his total over the last two days to three, a number that deserves acknowledgement even if the Yanks have gone just 1-1 in those games.