DETROIT _ Aaron Hicks helped beat the Tigers with an impressive inside-outside game Friday night.
He hit two home runs in his second start since returning from the disabled list, and the Yankees held on for an 8-6 victory over the Tigers in front of 21,363 at Comerica Park.
An erratic Dellin Betances outing in the eighth nearly flipped the night's script entirely _ he allowed three runs and saw the go-ahead run come to the plate _ but with two on and two out, Chad Green struck out Dixon Machado. Aroldis Chapman struck out the side in a perfect ninth for his second save.
Held to three hits in the first six innings, the Tigers pounded out nine in the seventh and eighth to cut a 6-1 deficit to 8-6.
The Yankees (7-7) had 11 hits, three by Ronald Torreyes and two each by Brett Gardner, Miguel Andujar and Hicks.
The latter, of course, had the most memorable night.
After a long double by Gary Sanchez, Hicks put the Yankees on the scoreboard in the second with an inside-the-park two-run homer, a shot to right-center off right-hander Mike Fiers. The ball caromed off the scoreboard wall and rolled toward left-center, far away from center fielder Leonys Martin. Hicks did not appear to run at full speed out of the box but nevertheless easily beat the throw home, diving across the plate with a headfirst slide _ and a big smile on his face _ before pounding the ground with both hands.
Hicks made it 6-1 in the sixth with a drive well over the right-field fence off Fiers. He became the first Yankee with a multi-homer game that included an inside-the-parker since Hank Bauer did it on May 30, 1956 against the Senators.
Jordan Montgomery, who failed to make it through five innings last Sunday after being spotted a 5-0 first-inning lead, was charged with three runs in six innings-plus. He took a 6-1 lead into the seventh before being knocked out by Victor Martinez's RBI double and Gardner's throwing error.
David Robertson allowed an inherited runner to score on a sacrifice fly to make it 6-3 and the Tigers got the tying run to the plate, but Robertson struck out Martin on a sweeping curve.
The Yankees made it 8-3 in the eighth on a triple by Andujar, Torreyes' RBI single and Didi Gregorius' sacrifice fly.
Betances immediately gave one back in the bottom half on Jeimer Candelario's leadoff homer, and the inning spiraled from there for the right-hander, who had entered the game with three straight scoreless outings.
The Yankees went to work against Fiers in the second. Sanchez made it five hits in his last 10 at-bats with a smoked one-out double on an 0-and-2 fastball that right fielder Nick Castellanos appeared to be in fear of as it sailed over him. Hicks followed and launched a first-pitch changeup off the base of the wall in right-center. The ball hit the wall at just the right angle, from the Yankees' perspective, and skittered far away from center fielder Martin. It was the Yankees' first inside-the-park homer since Curtis Granderson's on Aug. 21, 2011.
In the fifth, Andujar doubled and Gardner dumped a one-out blooper to center that fell for an RBI double. Aaron Judge extended his hitting streak to 11 games with an RBI single to right and stole second as Giancarlo Stanton struck out. Gregorius then bounced one to short right into the shift, but Machado's throw missed first base by a few yards for a run-scoring error.
James McCann's leadoff homer in the bottom of the inning made it 5-1.
