Yankees lose to Tigers, but deny Miguel Cabrera a chance at 3,000 hits

DETROIT – The crowd most assuredly was not saying “Booooooooone.”

Aaron Boone, the Yankees manager, made himself public enemy No. 1 in this town — for one day at least — by choosing to intentionally walk Miguel Cabrera in his final plate appearance of the afternoon in what would be a 3-0 loss to the Tigers in front of 21,529 thoroughly angry fans at Comerica Park.

“It’s a baseball call all the way, but there’s no doubt that there’s a little more feeling to it, understanding the situation,” Boone said. “But in the end, you have to go with what you think is right within the context of the game.”

Cabrera, who came into the day one hit shy of becoming the 33rd player in major-league history to reach the 3,000-hit plateau, was already hitless in three at-bats.

He went 0-for-3 against Jordan Montgomery, who was terrific, allowing one run and three hits over six innings in which he walked two and struck out five.

But what just about everyone was discussing after this one was the bottom of the eighth inning. With the Tigers ahead 1-0, Victor Reyes led off against Yankees righty Miguel Castro with a double. Leadoff man Robbie Grossman hit a ground smash Castro couldn’t handle, the play scored as an infield single. Castro walked Jonathan Schoop on four pitches to load the bases and lefty Lucas Luetge came on to face Jeimer Candelario. Luetge got Candelario to bounce into a 1-2-3 double play, which left first base open with Cabrera coming up and a lefty, Austin Meadows on deck.

Boone and the Yankees chose to intentionally walk Cabrera to load the bases, which brought the house down on Boone.

“We're trying to win a game,” said Luetge, who said he figured the move was coming with the lefty-swinging Meadows on deck. “As great as it is to see 3,000, we're not concerned about it as much as they are."

The crowd momentarily cheered when Meadows flared a two-run double to center to make it 3-0, but the fans quickly went back to jeering the fifth-year Yankees’ manager, doing so until game’s end.

“Yeah, of course,” Boone said if he expected the crowd to react the way it did. “Certainly understand that. Don’t necessarily like being in that position but that’s part of it.”

Cabrera, who went 3-for-4 in Wednesday’s loss, pointed to the scoreboard as if to tell the fans what was most important to him on this day.

Asked if he was upset about the intentional walk, Cabrera gave an immediate “no” in response.

“My on base percentage went up,” Cabrera added with a laugh. “And we scored two runs. That's the beauty of baseball... I would rather go 0-for-3 and see my team win."

His team did in large part because the Yankees’ offense continued with its early-season inconsistency. Thursday the group managed seven hits against five Detroit pitchers, one of whom was former Yankee Michael Pineda. The righthander, a Yankee from 2014-17 who was making his Tigers debut, allowed three hits and zero walks over five scoreless innings in which he struck out two.

The Yankees went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and stranded seven.

The most frustrating inning may well have been the eighth when pinch hitter Josh Donaldson led off with a double and Gleyber Torres, also pinch hitting, reached on an infield single (Tim Locastro, pinch running for Donaldson, went to third).

But Aaron Hicks popped to short and, after Aaron Judge walked to load the bases, lefty Gregory Soto got Anthony Rizzo to hit into a 1-2 force. He then got out of the jam when Giancarlo Stanton grounded out.

“Extremely frustrating,” Hicks said. “Especially in that situation with no outs, I’m supposed to get the guy in and wasn’t able to do it.”

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.