The Yankees' losing streak reached a season-long six games in a 9-3 loss to the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday night with a blueprint that has become maddeningly familiar: falling behind big early as the short-handed offense sputters.

This time, in a showdown between two of the best starting pitchers in the majors, the Tigers tallied four runs on three homers with two outs in the first inning off Cam Schlittler, who logged the worst start of his All-Star-caliber season. On the other side, Tarik Skubal recorded his best start since returning from his unprecedented elbow surgery earlier this month, holding the Yankees to two runs (one earned) on one hit with nine strikeouts over six innings.

"This week's been rough," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "There's no sugarcoating it."