Michael King seems to have figured out what caused recent struggles

Michael King hadn’t exactly been in a prolonged slump, but whatever the righthander had been going through the last couple of weeks, he seems to have corrected it

King, among the most dominant relievers in the sport in the first part of the season before allowing at least one run in three straight outings (May 21, 24 and 28), made it two straight scoreless appearances Sunday in the Yankees' 5-4, 10-inning victory over the Tigers.

Entering the game in the 10th with ghost runner Eric Haase   at second, King struck out Derek Hill, Willi Castro and Spencer Torkelson, with each strikeout pitch seemingly nastier than the previous one.

King, who has recorded multiple strikeouts in 11 of 17 appearances, struck out one in a perfect eighth in Saturday’s 3-0 victory.

“He had a couple of hiccups where maybe there were some pitch selection things,” Aaron Boone said of King’s poor stretch of games. “But he came in pounding the strike zone. It might have been one of his first back-to-back days, so to come in and respond that way . . . that was huge.”

King has a 2.90 ERA with 42 strikeouts — the most of any reliever in the big leagues as of the end of Sunday’s game — and six walks in 31 innings.

More pitching prowess

Yankees pitchers have allowed only 16 runs in their last 11 games, matching their fewest runs in an 11-game span in a single season in franchise history and posting a 1.47 ERA in that stretch. They also allowed 16 runs in an 11-game stretch from Aug. 20-28, 1963.

Yankees starting pitchers have allowed 10 runs, 32 hits and 13 walks in 75 2/3 innings in that stretch a 1.19 ERA and 0.59 WHIP.

Extra bases

Aaron Judge (1-for-5 with a run) is 38-for-117 (.325) with 12 homers, 21 RBIs, 13 walks and 26 runs in 30 games at home . . . Josh Donaldson snapped a 0-for-16 skid with a leadoff double in the second . . . The Tigers fell to 14-27 in this ballpark, which opened in 2009.