With today being the actual Mother's Day, we were inclined to blow this game off as well. After the first three games in Oakland, a deadly fog of indifference hung over the second floor baseball bunker.
But Verlander was pitching and, when he does, good things always happen regardless of how poorly the rest of the team has been playing.
JV went into the seventh having allowed the Athletics two baserunners -- a walk and a Seth Smith homer -- and still was pitching for his life, since his mates had scored only two runs.
Out he came after the inning -- with a callus on his pitching hand, we later learned -- and in came Ben-Wah, with, per the script (OMG), Fernando Valverde to follow.
Ben-Wah walked one and fanned two, and recorded his tenth hold. (Ten, really? It seems like that's the total of leads he's squandered.) A typical Tiger offensive burst -- a Boesch double and three walks -- produced a ninth inning run. Valverde did enter, and retired the side on eleven pitches for his seventh save.
THAT'S the way ya do it ... exactly like they drew it up in Lakeland.
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