Brandon McCarthy Outpitches Max Scherzer. Seriously.

The Yankees went into this 4-game series with the Detroit Tigers as serious underdogs: In addition to all their difficulties this season, the Tigers lead the AL Central, and, after the trading deadline, now have the last 3 AL MVPs and the last 3 AL Cy Young winners.

One of those Cy winners, the defending one, Max Scherzer, took the mound for them last night. For the Yankees... uh, Brandon McCarthy?

Well, McCarthy and 4 relievers -- Matt Thornton, Adam Warren, Shawn Kelley and David Robertson -- combined to allow not one single solitary earned run. The only Tiger run came in the 5th inning, as a result of an error by new 3rd baseman Martin Prado, a stolen base, and a single by Ian Kinsler.

Scherzer only allowed 2 runs himself, but, this time, the Yankees scoring only 2 runs was enough. Both came in the bottom of the 3rd: Ichiro Suzuki (remember him?) led off with a single, Brett Gardner (who must be exhausted from all those home runs) followed with another, and Derek Jeter (you may have heard of him) added another.

With the bases loaded and nobody out, logic dictated that runs would come home; 2012 to present Yankee experience suggested a massive "Yankee RISPfail."

There wasn't much RISPfail: Jacoby Ellsbury hit a sacrifice fly to get Ichiro home. Carlos Beltran lined out, but Brian McCann singled home Gardner.

That was it: Yankees 2, Tigers 1. WP: McCarthy (4-0). SV: Robertson (30). LP: Scherzer (13-4).

The series continues tonight. Hiroki Kuroda starts for the Yankees, while David Price, newly acquired from the dessicated husk of the Tampa Bay Rays' 2008-13 "dynasty," makes his first start for the Michigan club.

In other news, Shane Victorino of the Red Sox is having back surgery, and will be out for the season.

Funny, I really liked "The Flyin' Hawaiian" when he was a Phillie. Met fans called him a whole bunch of nasty names. I presumed it was because he made the Mets look like bums. (Not that they needed his help.) But now that he's on the Red Sox, I'm beginning to see their point.