DETROIT — The Motown Massacre.
The Yankees ended an embarrassing series in Detroit with a dreadful loss on Sunday, as they were swept out of Comerica Park with a 6-2 loss to the Tigers.
It was their fifth loss in six games and left Aaron Boone “pissed off.”
After getting overmatched by the Tigers — who entered the series in last place in the AL Central — the Yankees return to The Bronx to face the Rays and Red Sox this week. It was the first time since 2000 the Yankees had been swept in Detroit.
Boone called it “just a bad ending to a terrible weekend. We’ve got to get better.”
If they play anything like they have the last three days, it will be an even longer week at Yankee Stadium.
On Sunday, they made three errors in one inning, had another runner thrown out on the bases and left 10 more runners on base, as their hitless streak with runners in scoring position reached 20 before it finally ended in the eighth.
Boone hinted at making some changes, but ultimately believed his team is more reflective of the one that nearly found itself in first place after winning their sixth in a row last Sunday than the one it’s been since.
The manager acknowledged they had to “clean some things up.”
There’s plenty to choose from.
“What we’ve been putting out there right now is not our best and it’s unacceptable,’’ Aaron Judge said of a lineup that has been held to two or fewer runs in all six of their most recent losses. “We have to make some changes. You can’t keep coming to the plate doing the same things and expecting different results.”
It was Judge who came to the plate with the bases loaded and two out in the ninth and swung at two sliders out of the strike zone before watching a called strike three to end the game.
They also used a trio of pitchers, Michael King, Nestor Cortes Jr. and Nick Nelson, who hardly gave them a chance and then the rest of the lineup went out and played like it was in a fog.
Gleyber Torres made the two most glaring miscues, waving at a grounder to his right off the bat of Victor Reyes and then booting a routine ground ball by Jeimer Candelario.
After that half inning, Torres did his best impression of Yankees fans who had the misfortune of tuning into the game, as he slammed his glove repeatedly in the dugout.
It was a miserable afternoon from the start for the Yankees, who got their first two batters of the day on base before Judge hit into a double play.
They allowed two runs in the bottom of the inning, with Clint Frazier airmailing a throw home that let Miguel Cabrera score easily from first base on Nomar Mazara’s double to left.
Detroit left-hander Tarik Skubal, who entered the game with a 5.23 ERA — but pitched well his previous two outings — shut down the Yankees over six scoreless innings.
Torres got the Yankees’ first hit with a runner in scoring position with a garbage-time single in the eighth that snapped the team’s hitless streak with runners in scoring position.
That just led to more hijinks, as Gary Sanchez followed with an infield single to short to knock in a run, but when the ball got away from Jonathan Schoop at first, Sanchez inexplicably got caught between first and second and was thrown out to end the inning with the Yankees down by four runs.
Sanchez said he was trying to be aggressive on the play, but needed to make a better decision.
After the final defeat, Boone was asked if he had the roster to turn the team around.
“Absolutely we’re good enough,’’ Boone said. “We had a bad weekend. As pissed off as I am — and we should be — by the way we played, it’s a bad weekend. We need to turn the page. We’ve got a big homestand coming up. We need to figure it out.”
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