After a 58-minute rain delay in the bottom of the eighth, New York prevailed to defeat Detroit 5-3 at Yankee Stadium behind a solid pitching performance by A.J. Burnett. The right-hander went six innings and surrendered three runs on six hits.
The real pitching highlight of the night came from reliever Phil Hughes, who threw two innings of shutout relief and tallied six K's. He has not given up a run since June 10.
Mariano Rivera surrendered one hit in the ninth but still earned his 24th save of the season.
Luke French started for Detroit and threw five innings, surrendering just one earned run — but Joel Zumaya wasted a 2-1 lead in the seventh, surrendering a three-run home run to Mark Teixeira.
Detroit led off the scoring in the top of the first, when Miguel Cabrera's grounder scored Curtis Granderson. New York answered in the bottom of the frame when Hideki Matsui's RBI single brought home Johnny Damon.
The Tigers took a 2-1 lead in the second when Placido Polanco singled home Josh Anderson, and they extended it to 3-1 with a fifth-inning solo homer by Curtis Granderson.
After that, it was all New York.
Teixeira singled in the fifth, moving Damon to second — but Damon scored on an error by Anderson to bring the Yanks within a run. Teixeira gave the Yankees the lead for good in the seventh, jacking a three-run shot off Zumaya.
Teixeira finished the night 3-for-5 with 3 RBIs.
