Surging Yankees brace for test from first-place Tigers

In the opening weeks of the season, the New York Yankees visited the Detroit Tigers in frigid conditions.

Five months later, both teams are in heated playoff races as the Yankees host the Tigers in a three-game series that begins Tuesday.

The Yankees (80-63) dropped two of three at Detroit in April when the gametime temperature was never higher than 42 degrees. New York won the final game of the series and took a seven-game lead in the AL East through May 28 before experiencing a two-month slump.

The Yankees went 25-34 from May 30-Aug. 5 but have since recovered.

Since holding on for a 3-2 victory at Texas on Aug. 6, New York is 20-9. And since getting outscored 19-4 in three straight losses at home against the Red Sox from Aug. 21-23, the Yankees are on an 11-3 run.

The Yankees trail the Blue Jays by two games in the division for the second time since Aug. 30. New York struggled in a 7-1 loss to Toronto on Friday but followed with a pair of victories, including a 4-3 victory Sunday.

Cody Bellinger had three hits in the most recent victory, including a tiebreaking RBI double in the third inning. He is batting .338 (25-for-74) over his past 19 games with five home runs and 16 RBIs.

The Yankees' Ben Rice hit a three-run homer off Max Scherzer in the first inning and is hitting .284 (29-for-102) in his past 27 games.

"It's huge," Rice said. "And with that being said, we've got more work to do, so we're going to keep going."

Detroit (82-62) holds an 8 1/2 game lead over the Kansas City Royals for the AL Central and also leads Toronto by a half-game for the AL's top record and home field advantage throughout the postseason.

The Tigers have held sole possession of the AL Central lead since April 23 but have gone 4-9 since a five-game winning streak Aug. 18-23. Detroit lost its second straight series when it dropped two of three at home over the weekend to the Chicago White Sox.

During Sunday's 6-4 loss, six Detroit pitchers combined to allow a season-high nine walks. It marked the sixth time in their past 13 game the Tigers issued at least four walks.

"We lost a series that I feel like we should have won if we executed a little bit better on both sides of the ball," Detroit manager A.J. Hinch said. "So we'll start with an off day (Monday), get to Tuesday, hopefully with a win, and try to continue stacking series wins. That'll get us where we want to get to."

Detroit struck out 29 times in the series and went 3-for-17 with runners in scoring position after mustering four hits Sunday.

New York's starting pitchers are 10-1 with a 2.29 ERA in the past 13 games and right-hander Will Warren (8-6, 4.28 ERA) opens the series with his first career start against Detroit.

Warren allowed two runs on five hits in five innings in Wednesday's 8-7 loss at Houston, marking the seventh time in eight starts he allowed two earned runs or less.

Tigers' right-hander Casey Mize (13-5, 3.87) is set to start Tuesday. He is 4-1 with a 5.17 ERA in his past six starts and allowed 12 runs on 20 hits in his previous three outings before allowing one run in five innings in Wednesday's 6-2 win over the visiting New York Mets.

Mize allowed one run on four hits in six innings at home to the Yankees April 7 and is 1-1 with a 3.86 ERA in three career starts against New York.

--Field Level Media