Curtis Granderson led off the first inning with an inside-the-park homer and the Detroit Tigers beat the Yankees 5–4 yesterday. The Tigers have won two of three from New York and can win their first series since mid-July with a victory in the series finale tonight. With the win, the Tigers moved within 5 1/2 games of the Seattle Mariners in the wild-card race. Detroit began the day 2 1/2 games behind Cleveland in the AL Central.

New York fell 2 1/2 games behind Seattle, and seven behind Boston in the AL East.

The Yankees were without Derek Jeter, who rested a sore knee, while Detroit’s Ivan Rodriguez was ejected after arguing with home-plate umpire Sam Holbrook after the top of the fourth inning. Bobby Seay (1–0) was awarded the win after pitching two scoreless innings of relief. The Tigers needed five pitchers after rookie starter Jair Jurrjens left in the second inning because of a sore shoulder.

Todd Jones pitched the ninth for his 33rd save in 38 tries. Jones was helped by Carlos Guillen, who moved from shortstop to first base before the eighth inning. Guillen made a nice play on Hideki Matsui’s grounder in the hole, throwing across his body to Jones at first for the first out. Guillen also made a nice snare on a hard grounder by Robinson Cano to start a game-ending double play. Phil Hughes (2–2) lost for the first time since his major league debut on April 26. He allowed five runs and four hits, including three homers, in six innings. He walked one and struck out six.

The Tigers had only four hits in the game, and none after the third inning.

Granderson started the Tigers off with the first inside-the-park homer of his career. Granderson hit a slicing liner down the left field line that got by Matsui and rolled to the wall.

Placido Polanco singled, and after Hughes retired the next two hitters, Guillen homered deep into the right-field stands.

Jason Giambi made it 3–1 in the second with a homer that landed in almost the same spot as Guillen’s. Tigers starter Jurrjens left the game without throwing another pitch, and was replaced by Chad Durbin.

Marcus Thames gave the Tigers a 5–1 lead in the third with a two-run homer, but Cano made it a one-run game with a three-run shot off in the fourth.

The Yankees put two runners on with one out in the fifth, but Seay replaced Durbin and retired Bobby Abreu and Alex Rodriguez to end the inning.

Detroit third baseman Brandon Inge made a spectacular play to rob Melky Cabrera of a leadoff single in the eighth. Cabrera’s hard bouncer up the middle deflected off Joel Zumaya’s glove and rolled down the third-base line, but Inge made a barehanded pickup and threw Cabrera out at first.

Zumaya then retired Abreu and struck out Rodriguez to end the inning. Zumaya, in his third outing since returning for the disabled list, pitched 1 2–3 perfect innings. He was activated last Tuesday.