Striking Out The Yankees / Vikings 14, Browns 3

Things looked bad for the Mudville nine (ten, actually, with the DH) when Justin Verlander dropped a throw at first that led to two unearned fifth inning Yankee runs, and a tie score. 

The Tigers then whacky-tacked Ivan Nova for three runs on five hits, no cheapies, all early in counts. Nova allowed three more shots and one run in the sixth, and was gone. Joba Chamberlain, off the DL where he was expected to spend the entire season, gave up one run on two hits. 

JV, meanwhile, was striking out Yankees in bunches. He whiffed fourteen, the most by a Tiger against the Yankees since Jim Bunning got the same number in 1958. 

Prince Fielder homered in the second, as did Miguel Cabrera in the fourth; a shot that was high, and far, and really gone, measured at 454 feet into the shrubbery (The shrubbery! Nee! Nee!) in straightway center. The Big Man, just a loveable teddy bear, hasn't been hitting them out down the lines, or even to the gaps with the exception of yesterday's triumphant game winner. They've been going to almost dead center; long, deep blasts that enemy outfielders can only watch.

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Speaking of the Cleveland Browns: the Vikings handled them 14-3 tonight at Progressive Yards, scoring a touchdown and a field goal in the second inning. Eight of the points were unearned, the result of a throwing error by the usually reliable Jason Kipnis. So the Tribe got whacked, again; ten in a row now and it's good that they're not giving the Tigers any trouble, but bad because, when the Blue Jays were struggling and the Tigers were awful, the Indians were winners and they became the home team here in the second floor baseball bunker. There remains in the blogger's soft heart, when the Indians get thrashed day after day, a wish that they turn it around. Often enough to become respectable, but not so often that they become an object in the Tigers' rear view mirror, closer than they actually appear.