Yankees 3, Tigers 4 (F/12): Yankees waste good effort by Hiroki Kuroda, losing in extra innings

Facing a former Cy Young winner for the second straight night, the Yankees held a 3-1 lead for most of the night before the Detroit Tigers came back to tie the game in the 7th, as they would go on to beat the Yankees, 4-3, on the power of an Alex Avila homerun in the 12th inning on Tuesday night in the Bronx.

Hiroki Kuroda's night did not get off to the best of starts, giving up hits to two of the first three batters of the game to set up runners on the corners with no out for Victor Martinez, who put the Tigers up 1-0 just four batters in with a sac-fly left.

Miguel Cabrera had the second hit off of Kuroda in that first inning, but after that, the Yankees' ace-by-default was on top of his game, retiring 14 in-a-row before Andrew Romine, the brother of Yankees catcher Austin Romine, opened the 5th inning with a solo homerun.

The Yankees scored three straight runs off of Tigers starter David Price, who was making his debut for Detroit, after falling behind 1-0 in the 1st inning.

Brian McCann tied the game in the 2nd inning with a solo homerun off of Price, his 12th homerun of the season -- third against Price this year. The Yankees added another run an inning later after Brendan Ryan opened with a double into the right-center field gap. Brett Gardner moved him over with a sac-bunt a batter later, then after a Derek Jeter groundout, Jacoby Ellsbury slapped a double down the left field line to score Ryan, putting the Yankees ahead 2-1.

New York added their third and final run of the game two innings later, in the 5th, when Martin Prado connected for his first homerun as a Yankee, sending a ball into the left field seats against Price, extending the Bombers' lead to 3-1.

After Romine's homerun in that made it a 3-2 game, the Tigers were able to tie the game against Kuroda in the 7th. Martinez reached on an infield single to kick things off, then moved to second base a couple batters later on a two-out single by Nick Castellanos. Avila followed with an RBI single into right that scored the tying run.

Kuroda was done after seven innings; he gave up three runs on six hits, striking out five without walking anybody on 91 pitches (58 strikes).

From there, Joe Girardi just started burning through his bullpen. Dellin Betances struck out two in a scoreless 8th inning, including Cabrera on a 100 mph fastball to end the inning -- it was also Betances' 100th strikeout of the season. Betances got the first out of the 9th before hitting Torii Hunter with a pitch, causing Girardi to again to to the bullpen.

Girardi brought in Shawn Kelley, who, after a past ball got by McCann, moving Hunter's pinch-runner to second base, got two big groundball outs to end the inning.

Carlos Beltran put the Yankees in business to win the game in the 9th inning, opening up with a single against Price, who was still in the game. But the lefty ace battled back to retire the next to hitters before Tigers manager Brad Asmus made the call to bring in the former Yankee, Joba Chamberlain, to get the final out of the 9th, which he did -- full beard and all -- striking out Prado, with a big fist pump following shortly after.

Price, overall, dominated. He struck out 10 while giving up just three runs on eight hits without walking a batter, throwing 112 pitches.

David Huff got the first two outs of the 10th inning for Girardi before he went to Esmil Rodgers to get the next three outs, taking him to two outs in the 11th, where he brought in Rich Hill for his Yankees debut after being called up on Tuesday. That didn't last long, he let Martinez steal second then he hit the only batter he faced with a pitch, ending his night after just four pitches.

Girardi then went to Matt Daley, who recorded the final out of the 11th inning before eventually giving up the go-ahead homerun to Avila in the 12th.

The Yankees didn't really have any chances to win the game in extra-innings. Joba hit Jeter with a pitch with two outs in the 10th, but that turned into nothing. The most exciting thing -- which was really nothing in the end -- was Chase Headley coming within just a few feet of hitting a game-tying homerun off of Joe Nathan in the 12th.

The Yankees will see yet another former Cy Young will on Wednesday night when they face Justin Verlander at 7:05 p.m. ET. Left-hander Chris Capuano will be on the hill for the Yankees.

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