Tigers Send Yanks To Another 'L'

The 1999 New York Yankees already have matched the '98 World Series championship team in one category -- longest losing streak of the season.

Dave Mlicki won his Detroit debut and the Tigers completed an improbable three-game sweep by sending the Yankees to their fourth consecutive loss, 5-1 Sunday.

"It's very frustrating. This is tough," said Paul O'Neill, hitless in his last 16 at-bats after going 0-for-11 at Tiger Stadium. "We expect to win when we take the field. Obviously, so does Detroit."

Last weekend, New York outscored the Tigers 28-5 in overwhelming them in three games at Yankee Stadium.

But Detroit bounced back to outscore the Yankees 16-3, sweeping them in a three-game series at Tiger Stadium for the first time since the end of the 1988 season. New York was not held to three runs in any three-game span last year.

"If somebody would have told me," interim manager Don Zimmer said, "I wouldn't have believed it. And one run in Detroit, of all places, is hard to fathom."

Tony Clark drove in four runs as Detroit handed the Yankees their first four-game losing streak since last Aug. 23-26 -- the only time New York dropped four in a row during a year in which they set an AL record with 114 wins in the regular season.

"We didn't swing the bats," catcher Joe Girardi said. "That's the bottom line. We scored three runs in three days. It's hard to win that way."

Ramiro Mendoza (1-1), who hadn't given up a run in his first two starts, allowed five runs on nine hits and three walks.

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Tony Clark's four RBI help extend the Yankees' misery. (AP)

Mlicki (1-0), making his first start since being acquired Friday in a trade with Los Angeles, held the Yankees to one unearned run and four hits in five innings. He had two strikeouts with three walks.

Clark's RBI single with two outs in the first produced the first earned run given up by Mendoza this season.

"He's an outstanding pitcher," Clark said. "Their whole staff is outstanding. But, I can't say enough about the job our guys did on the hill. They kept us in ballgames. Sometimes, that's all you have to do."

The Yankees, who had held a lead in each of their first 11 games, tied it at 1 in the second when Girardi's grounder scored Chili Davis with an unearned run.

The Tigers scored twice in the second on Clark's RBI grounder and a throwing error by second baseman Chuck Knoblauch on the play.

Clark made it 5-1 with a two-run homer, his second, in the seventh.

"I never met a win I didn't like," Clark said. "But, I've got to be honest, that might be the only bad pitch Mendoza threw all day."

The Yankees had a runner at third with one out in the seventh, but Mel Rojas -- also acquired with Mlicki -- got Knoblauch on a popup and Derek Jeter on a comebacker to the mound.

"This is baseball," Jeter said. "Anything can happen in baseball. Sure, we expect to win. We expect to win every time out. But it's not going to happen."

Notes

• The Yankees were 7-1 when Darryl Strawberry was arrested late Wednesday night. They're 0-4 since then.
• The fewest runs the Yankees scored in any three-game span last year was six, which came when they lost their first three games of the season.
• Mendoza had gone his first 14 2-3 innings without giving up a run this season. He hadn't yielded a first-inning run in his previous 15 starts, dating back to last season.
• In 1998, the Yankees were 10-4 in Mendoza's 14 starts, averaging 6.6 runs per game.
• Mlicki was making his first AL start since 1993. Both his appearances for Los Angeles were in relief.
• Rojas made his AL debut.

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