Verlander's Night

OMG ... not the Pirates. Another bunch of no-names of the kind that jumps up and kicks the Tigers' butts when they aren't looking. And it's inter-league weekend. But Verlander's pitching, and you never know ... against this crew, he might throw a no-hitter. 

And he almost did. 

Jacob Harrison got their first hit, a clean single, with one out in the ninth. On the way there, JV fanned twelve and walked two. The only hard-hit ball was Harrison's sixth inning  liner that Don Kelly, playing center for the injured Austin Jackson, chased down on the warning track. (Don Kelly, HE'S the man!) 

Tonight's effort represents the fourth time in two years that JV has taken a no-no into the eighth inning. He got one, and came close three times, which has to be some kind of record.

So close, but yet so far. (Maggie is the Frankie Valli fan in the room.) 

Verlander isn't content with being arguably the league's top pitcher. He has his sights on a bronze plaque in Cooperstown. And y'know what? He's going to make it.