Justin Verlander's last pitch, his 131st of the night, was a 100 mph fastball burned past Alex Gordon for a called strike three.
It made Skipper Leyland really look like the resident managerial genius, for leaving him in after the Royals turned two scratch singles, a walk, and a hit batter into a run that narrowed the score to 3-2. Fernando Valverde was ready to come in, his presence in the pen -- seven hits in 4.2 innings to date -- possibly a greater incentive to let JV finish.
Verlander's dramatics eclipsed an excellent start by rookie Danny Duffy. Seven hits, three runs, seven strikeouts in six-plus innings for that rarest of major league players: one who has two first names, that start and end with the same letter, and contain the same number of letters.
And -- oh, yes -- two of the Tigers' runs scored on a homer by Brandon Hinge.
No comments:
Post a Comment