NEW YORK -- All is not well at Yankee Stadium, where New York's pitching problems might be a widening crack instead of a blip.
Detroit beat up New York pitching for the second straight game, and the Tigers left town with a series win over the Yankees for the first time in eight years, pounding rookie Brad Halsey in a 10-8 victory Wednesday.
"We've played poorly before," Derek Jeter said, "We've just got to come back."
A 119-game loser last year, Detroit built a 10-3 lead by the sixth inning behind a three-run homer by Carlos Guillen, who had three hits.
The Tigers took two of three from the Yankees, who have lost five of six to the Mets and Tigers since sweeping the Red Sox last week.
"There's still maybe a little aftereffects after that Boston series," Alex Rodriguez said.
Since then, the Yankees have allowed 49 runs in a six-game span for the first time since last Aug. 26-31. Halsey (1-2) gave up seven runs -- five earned -- and nine hits in 4 1/3 innings, an outing that put even more pressure on the Yankees to trade for a veteran starting pitcher or activate Orlando Hernandez, who has been on a minor-league rehabilitation assignment as he recovers from shoulder surgery last year.
"I'm not going to judge us on this small sample," general manager Brian Cashman said. "The last few days is just a bad stretch, that's all."
Halsey has a 7.23 ERA in four starts as a fill-in for Kevin Brown, who is recovering from a back spasm and intestinal parasite. Other than Javier Vazquez (3.50), the other starters have high ERAs, with Brown at 4.13, trailed by Jon Lieber (4.97), Mike Mussina (5.20) and Jose Contreras (6.10).
"The thinness of our starting rotation is still a concern," Yankees manager Joe Torre said.
Detroit won largely without Ivan Rodriguez and manager Alan Trammell, who were ejected in the first inning for arguing. The All-Star catcher had been called out on strikes by plate umpire Angel Hernandez on a pitch at the knees.
"I didn't do anything," Rodriguez said. "I was just smiling in the dugout. Anybody can smile. The only thing I told him was the pitch was low. I said to him two times or maybe three that pitch is low, it is not a strike. Then I go back to the dugout, and he throws me out. I don't think it was acceptable. ... A lot of people want to see me on TV."
Detroit, which had lost five straight games coming in, won its first series at New York since taking three of four from Aug. 9-11, 1996. In mid-June, the crosstown Mets swept three games from the Tigers at Shea Stadium.
Jeremy Bonderman, 6-6 this year after going 6-19 last season, took a four-hitter into the seventh and wound up allowing six runs and seven hits in 6 2/3 innings.
"This team has got more firepower than any team in the league," Bonderman said of the Yankees. "You're trying to prove something to them, you're trying to prove something to yourself. I thought I did pretty well, but I wouldn't want to do it every day."
After Enrique Wilson's RBI double and Jeter's run-scoring single in the seventh, Franklyn German relieved and allowed a three-run homer to Alex Rodriguez, whose second-inning error had led to a pair of unearned runs. Rodriguez had been in an 3-for-36 (.083) slump with runners in scoring position.
Esteban Yan came in with one on and two outs and retired Bernie Williams on a groundout, then pitched a one-hit eighth. Ugueth Urbina allowed a two-out infield hit to Rodriguez in the ninth, then got his 12th save in 14 chances when Jason Giambi hit a game-ending groundout with a man on.
"Just a blip in the road," Giambi said.
New York, which has overcome deficits of five or more runs in four of its wins this year, had been confident of a comeback.
"You certainly can't get cavalier about it and think it's automatically going to happen," Torre said.
Large leads haven't always meant wins for Detroit. The Tigers led 14-4 at Texas on May 8 and lost 16-15 in 10 innings. Last Sunday at Colorado, Detroit was ahead 8-0 in the fifth and lost 10-8.
"We've had problems with the relief," Trammell said. "Today wasn't stellar, either, but we got the job done."
Notes
- Hideki Matsui had three hits, including his 16th homer, which matched his total last year -- his first in the major leagues after leaving Japan.
- Detroit center fielder Alex Sanchez left in the fourth because of a sore right hamstring, which he hurt in the second when he fell over first base after bunting in a run.
- Guillen has a career-high 12 homers.
- Craig Monroe's sixth-inning homer off Bret Prinz was his third of this season and first in 111 at-bats since May 18.
- Brown plans to throw in the bullpen Thursday and will need at least one additional bullpen session and perhaps one rehabilitation start before New York activates him.
- Giambi, also recovering from a parasite, played first base for the first time since June 26.
The Associated Press News Service
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