2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS

Prince belts pair of monster homers to pace Tigers

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 8/18/2012 1:13 AM ET

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DETROIT -- Jadyn Fielder had already received his gifts for his eighth birthday before his dad stepped to the plate on Friday night against the Orioles. Now he's getting a baseball.

"He'll probably play catch with it," Jadyn's dad, Prince Fielder, said.

The youngster has plenty, no doubt, but this one took quite a journey -- about 462 feet to the center-field concourse of Comerica Park. It also took the Tigers from a potentially damaging loss with Justin Verlander on the mound to a tie score.

Fielder's second home run of the game took care of the rest.

"We got the big blows from the big guys. There's no defense to those," manager Jim Leyland said after Fielder's eighth-inning drive off J.C. Romero broke the tie for a 5-3 win. "It turns the crowd around a little bit. It turns the team around a little bit, honestly. We needed that. We were a little bit stale."

The win, combined with a White Sox loss in Kansas City, whittled Detroit's deficit in the American League Central to 1 1/2 games. It also moved the Tigers into a tie with the O's for the second AL Wild Card spot.

The duo of Fielder and Miguel Cabrera accounted for all of the Tigers' runs, and four of their five hits. It was Cabrera's first-inning loft that had put Detroit ahead before Orioles starter Tommy Hunter settled in.

On a night when the rest of the lineup was stymied and Verlander wasn't near his best, Cabrera and Fielder carried the club.

Even if Detroit hadn't won, people would be talking about Fielder's two hits. The fact that they changed the course of the game just made them bigger.

"I don't know that I've ever seen any ball in my entire life hit any harder than the first one Prince hit," Leyland said. "I'm not talking about distance, but I'm talking about, just, pow."

It was a startling shot after Cabrera had hit an easy ground-ball single through the Orioles' infield shift with one out in the sixth in a 3-1 game. Fielder came up ready to jump on a first-pitch fastball.

What followed was the combination of a hittable fastball connecting with the sweet spot of a bat being swung by one of baseball's strongest hitters.

The ball reached the railing of the concourse in right-center, beside the fountain structure, before falling onto the shrubs, where it sat until a member of the grounds crew retrieved it.

"I've seen [balls] hit that far, but that was as hard as you can hit a ball," Leyland said. "You can't hit a ball any better than that. That's one of those sweet spots [former legendary hitting coach] Charlie Lau used to talk about.

"It doesn't happen often, but if you hit a golf ball exactly right, you can't even feel it hit the club. Everything's perfect. I can't imagine Prince even felt that [ball] hitting the bat. I think it was such a perfect swing, and he centered it so good."

Fielder didn't argue.

"I didn't feel too much of it," Fielder said. "I hit it on the barrel."

It wasn't a milestone homer, but Fielder was glad to have it for his son, even if it wasn't a special request. Considering how much his kids enjoy his Home Run Derby performances, it seemed fitting.

"Every one of his birthdays, I always try [to homer]," said Fielder, who went deep on Jadyn's fifth birthday. "I hit one the day he was born, and that was a big deal. It's been rough the past couple of birthdays, so I finally hit [another] one on his birthday. That was pretty cool."

Both Verlander and Hunter left with no-decisions after six innings of three-run ball.

"We did a great job against Verlander tonight, and I'm so proud of our guys," O's manager Buck Showalter said. "They're hurting in there right now because they grinded to get him out of the game."

Octavio Dotel and Joaquin Benoit retired the O's in order in the seventh and eighth, respectively, and Darren O'Day came within an out of doing the same before falling behind Cabrera with two outs in the eighth.

O'Day walked Cabrera, extending the inning for Fielder, who greeted Romero by getting under a fastball and sending it seemingly as high as the other one went far, a combination of brute strength and hang time.

If the first home run was a two-iron, Leyland said, the second was a wedge.

"But a real long wedge," Leyland said.

It was heading out. The only question was whether it would stay fair.

"I saw it and I went, 'Oh,'" Fielder said. "Then I saw it kind of slicing back and I thought, 'Oh, it might have a shot.'"

Leyland thought the same thing. The only one who seemed certain Fielder had just powered Detroit in front was Alex Avila, who was watching from the on-deck circle.

"When he hit it, I saw it go straight up," Avila said, "and I was right on the line. As soon as he hit it, I knew that's a fair ball, because it wasn't curving at all. It went straight up and right over."

That one was big for Fielder for another reason.

"This is my first hit ever off of J.C.," he said. "I mean, he's broken my fingers a lot of times with his sinkers. Finally got a hit."

Finally got another ball for his kid.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Porcello handed loss as Tigers can't finish rally

By Anthony Odoardi / MLB.com | 8/19/2012 12:16 AM ET

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DETROIT -- Sometimes it only takes one pitch to decide a game.

For Tigers starter Rick Porcello, that was the case Saturday night, as the 23-year-old squared off against the Orioles and had thrown six scoreless innings before things unraveled in the top of the seventh.

Back-to-back weakly hit singles by the O's brought Chris Davis to the plate. Davis had entered the game hitting .176 in August, and hadn't homered since July 31. However, he got hold of a pitch by Porcello for an opposite-field three-run shot, handing his team a 3-2 victory in front of a sellout crowd of 42,132 at Comerica Park.

"Really, it's just one pitch I got beat on, and it wasn't even a bad pitch," Porcello said. "It happens sometimes. Sometimes you've got to tip your hat to him. It was a good piece of hitting. ... That's kind of the dagger."

Until the seventh, the sinkerballer had been cruising. He had allowed only three hits and a walk. One runner -- Robert Andino in the third -- had made it into scoring position.

It took two pitches in the seventh for things to begin falling apart. Adam Jones blooped a first-pitch fastball to center field for a base hit. Matt Wieters followed with his own first-pitch infield single to put runners on first and second with none out.

"You can't ask for anything better than what Ricky threw, especially in that inning," Tigers catcher Alex Avila said. "Broken-bat base hit, two infield singles, that's tough to swallow there."

It took a total of five pitches for the Orioles to plate all three of their runs, as Davis hit a 1-1 sinker over the left-field fence. After the game, Porcello said he couldn't have made a better pitch.

"It was a sinker down and away," he said. "We had first and second, nobody out, looking to get a ground ball. Obviously, that's the pitch I get ground balls with. He took the changeup down for a ball, then swung through the fastball.

"There's nothing else in my head. It's, 'Here it is.' It's that point in the game where if you're going to get beat, you're going to be beat with your best weapons, and he got me."

It was Davis' second career hit off Porcello and first career RBIs. He entered the game 0-for-3 against the right-hander, and had collected his first hit with a single in the second. When he connected in the seventh, he didn't know it had enough to get out.

"This is a huge park," Davis said. "With the way Prince [Fielder] and [Miguel] Cabrera are swinging it you wouldn't think so, but I was just glad to get the job done. That was huge for us."

Between Porcello and O's left-hander Zach Britton, it had been a pitchers' duel for most of the night. Despite Britton's 8.10 ERA coming into the contest, he contained the Detroit lineup, escaping jams to pitch seven scoreless innings.

"He was nasty," Avila said of Britton.

The seven innings were a season high for Britton, who had allowed four runs or more in four of his five starts this year. The Tigers had their chances, they just couldn't swing the momentum in their favor.

They left a total of six runners on base, all in the first three innings, and were 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position on the night.

"Right off the bat we had a couple opportunities [and] we didn't take advantage of it," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "Sometimes in games that comes back to haunt you, and that's probably what happened for us tonight."

With one out in the first, the Tigers loaded the bases on singles from Omar Infante and Cabrera, and a walk from Fielder.

But Jhonny Peralta, serving as Fielder's protection batting in the fifth spot, grounded into a double play. It was the first of three double plays for the Tigers in the game, and the first of two with runners in scoring position.

The final double-play ball came in the sixth. Britton gave up a single to Cabrera and walked Fielder. Peralta struck out, and Orioles shortstop J.J. Hardy then made a nice stop to turn a double play on a ground ball up the middle by Delmon Young.

"That kid's a pretty good shortstop," Leyland said. "When he first hit it off the bat, I thought it was a base hit up the middle, to be honest with you."

Peralta, who had been 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position, redeemed himself with a two-run base hit against reliever Pedro Strop in the eighth.

With the White Sox losing to the Royals, 9-4, the Tigers remain 1 1/2 games back in the American League Central. However, the loss moved them out of a three-way tie in the AL Wild Card race, and they are now a game back of the Orioles and Rays for one of the final two playoff spots.

And for Porcello, it all goes back to one pitch.

"I didn't have any other pitch in my mind, and I got beat on it. There's really nothing else to say," he said. "[Davis] was better than me on that particular pitch, and that's pretty much the bottom line."

Anthony Odoardi is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Tigers see big lead evaporate against O's

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 8/19/2012 7:15 PM ET

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DETROIT -- None of the curveballs Doug Fister threw on Sunday, and he threw a lot of them, were as big as the one the Orioles had in store for the Tigers.

Unlike some curveballs, this one stung. Depending on the way the stretch run unfolds, it could leave a mark.

"You're thinking it's going to be a pretty good day, obviously," Gerald Laird said after the Tigers' early five-run lead turned into a 7-5 loss to the Orioles. "But that's why this game's so weird, I guess."

Wei-Yen Chen, the Orioles' starter who held it together after a rough beginning, had the opposite view, but the same reaction.

"This is baseball. You never know what's going to happen," he said.

As wild as the Tigers' season has been, though, this one seemed predictable. They hadn't lost a game they had led by more than three runs all season. When they've busted out against a starter, they've been more likely to build on it than watch it dwindle.

If any games feel automatic after an inning, this one did. Detroit had a five-run lead with its hottest starter taking the mound, armed with what looked like one of his best breaking balls of the season.

Omar Infante homered for his third time as a Tiger -- a deep shot to left field -- to put his team on the board. Miguel Cabrera walked and Prince Fielder singled to continue the one-out rally. Jhonny Peralta, who went 1-for-4 and left six runners on base on Saturday while batting fifth in the order, came through with a three-run blast to right-center. Jeff Baker tacked on an RBI double to make it 5-0.

An inning later, the Tigers were clinging to a one-run lead. Two innings after that, they were watching Fister walk into the dugout with a two-run deficit, and long reliever Luke Putkonen trying to keep it at that.

"He knows what to do with a lead," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said of Fister. "He just wasn't sharp."

Putkonen did his job, but so did the O's, who continued the aura about their season by overcoming a five-run deficit to win for the third time in their last 18 games. They won a series in Detroit for the first time since 2008, and the second time in Leyland's seven years on the job.

The Tigers, meanwhile, lost a series at Comerica Park for the first time since early June. In the process, they lost a chance to gain ground on the White Sox in the American League Central race for the second time in three days -- after the Royals completed a series sweep of Chicago.

While the Tigers are off on Monday, the White Sox return home to welcome the Yankees, owners of the AL's best record. The way Sunday broke down, though, the Tigers might prefer to move on.

It wasn't just the way the game unfolded, but who it unfolded behind. Fister came over from the Mariners a year ago with baseball's lowest run support. Opponents were hitting just .187 when he pitched with the lead, accounting for just 10 out of his 49 runs on the year. With more than a four-run margin, opponents were just 6-for-40 (.150) this year, with no walks and 10 strikeouts.

He gave up a 4-0 lead in Minnesota in his last start, but two infield errors left all of those runs unearned. None of those runs reached or advanced on a walk.

Between his effectiveness -- he was 5-1 with a 1.52 ERA in his previous seven starts -- and his pace, Fister can put up a shutdown inning as quickly as any pitcher in baseball. But then, on a day when the Tigers put up more runs and hits in one inning off Chen than they did in six innings against him last month, maybe it figured.

It wasn't any relapse of the side issues that put Fister on the disabled list twice this season, he said. His health is fine. His overall feel, though, clearly wasn't.

"It's plain and simple: I just didn't execute," Fister said.

Chris Davis put the Orioles on the scoreboard just three pitches into Fister's second inning, jumping a fastball for his second home run in 24 hours. The game-changing damage, though, came with two outs -- and often on offspeed stuff.

Fister used back-to-back curveballs to turn a 3-1 count into a strikeout of rookie Manny Machado, but couldn't get No.9 hitter Taylor Teagarden to chase one with a full count.

Teagarden, 3-for-31 (.097) entering the day, was responsible for Baltimore's lone win against Detroit last month with a walkoff homer. This time, his two-out walk set up the comeback.

"[Teagarden was] probably the hitter that killed him," Leyland said. "That inning, that was huge for him, because he doesn't really walk guys much at all."

After Nick Markakis' double made it a 5-2 game, J.J. Hardy fell into an 0-2 count before fouling off a curveball. He got another one, but over the plate, which he lined for a two-run double and a one-run game.

Fister (7-8) retired six of the next seven batters he faced, including called third strikes on Omar Quintanilla and Teagarden to begin the fourth inning. Just as he seemed regrouped, back-to-back walks to Markakis and Hardy extended the inning, the latter after a 1-2 count.

Again, it felt odd.

"Normally when I'm executing, I don't walk too many guys," Fister said, "and today, I obviously walked a few. They made me pay for each one of those. It's a gift that I shouldn't be giving them."

The hits that turned them into runs came with two strikes. Nate McLouth's go-ahead, two-run triple came on an 0-2 pitch, again on a curveball.

Once Adam Jones singled in McLouth, Fister was gone, having surrendered seven runs on eight hits in 3 2/3 innings. Chen, meanwhile, used a Fielder double-play ball to escape a second-inning jam and roll from there.

"The Tigers are somebody else's problem for a while," O's manager Buck Showalter said.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Scherzer takes over MLB strikeout lead with win

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 8/22/2012 12:26 AM ET

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DETROIT -- Max Scherzer remains on pace for the highest strikeout rate per nine innings by a starter since Randy Johnson in 2002. The Blue Jays came to town with more strikeouts than hits in August. You can figure out what followed.

"He's got a good routine going, and he's pounding [the strike zone]," catcher Gerald Laird said. "He's making adjustments. Tonight it was fun for me to catch."

Figuring out how the Tigers' offense provided Scherzer with the support to turn seven innings of one-run, eight-strikeout ball into a 5-3 win, on the other hand, is a little more complicated.

"It was a freaky game to manage, to be honest with you," manager Jim Leyland said, "because you're thinking you're going to break this open. You look up, you've got two runs, [then] you've got three runs, and it seems like you've had a lot of guys out there.

"But the guy also, to his credit, made some nasty pitches, and that's tough to hit when the guy's not even close and then throws one right on the black or whatever. That's hard."

"The guy" was Blue Jays ace Ricky Romero, who has had a roller coaster of a season. His command went in and out, and the Tigers were riding in the front car.

Not since Texas' Jose Guzman in 1991 had an American League pitcher walked eight in a game without striking out any. The only Major League hurler to do it in the last 20 years was Colorado's Greg Reynolds in 2008. But neither of them had the track record of Romero, an All-Star in 2011 and a 42-game winner over his first three Major League seasons.

On the same night Scherzer took over the Major League lead in strikeouts, Romero vaulted into the AL lead in walks and joined that eight-walk-no-strikeout club. It was as dramatic a contrast as you could find without scripting it, yet the game ended up much closer.

The Tigers managed a lone infield hit with the bases loaded in three innings yet still produced a handful of runs. It wasn't particularly pretty, but the way Scherzer was dealing, it was enough.

"We had [Romero] on the ropes a few times, but I think we got out of our plan and he was able to get out of it," Laird said. "This game could have easily gotten out of hand, and we could have won easily."

Delmon Young, whose first bases-loaded walk since Aug. 9 of last season opened the scoring in the first inning, took a bottom-line outlook.

"We scored five runs," Young said. "If you can't win with five runs, you shouldn't be playing baseball."

Scherzer is 10-1 when the Tigers score five runs for him. But the way he's been pitching lately, he can win with fewer.

Once Scherzer sent down Edwin Encarnacion on a 99-mph fastball to end the third inning, he took over the AL strikeout lead from Justin Verlander (180). He began the next inning by freezing David Cooper on a changeup to pass Mets knuckleballer R.A. Dickey (181) for the Major League lead.

Scherzer (13-6) now has 186 Ks, three ahead of the Nationals' Stephen Strasburg, who also passed Dickey on Tuesday with a 10-K start against the Braves.

He struck out five in a 10-batter span before Encarnacion led off the sixth by lofting a drive down the left-field line for his 32nd home run of the year. He recovered to throw a 96-mph fastball past Kelly Johnson to set a career high in strikeouts.

Scherzer, who calls his final 15 pitches his most important of the game, ended his night by spotting a 97-mph fastball on Anthony Gose for strikeout No. 186, completing his fifth seven-inning performance in nine starts.

"Strikeouts are nice," Scherzer said, "but at the end of the day, it comes down to the team winning. That's the only thing I care about."

Said Leyland: "He's a hot pitcher, and he's just scratched the surface."

By then the Tigers were already ahead, though not particularly in command after Romero's wild first inning. A four-pitch, two-out walk to Prince Fielder with Austin Jackson on second turned into a debacle once Jhonny Peralta escaped an 0-2 count for a pass and Young walked on four pitches.

Romero reloaded the bases to start the second by walking Andy Dirks and Laird at the bottom of the order ahead of a Jackson single. Omar Infante drove in another run on a four-pitch walk, but Romero again escaped a big inning by inducing a double-play grounder from Miguel Cabrera and a lineout from Fielder.

"It's one of those things where you just kind of get into a groove," Romero said, "and I think early on I was having a tough time throwing strikes. Once you kind of get into that groove, you try to keep it as long as possible, and you just try to go from there."

Romero gathered himself from there until two walks and a single, again by the bottom third of the Tigers' order, set up his demise in the sixth. Jackson hit into an out at the plate, but a misstep from Cooper at first allowed Infante to beat his mad dash to the bag for another run before Cabrera hit a sacrifice fly.

Romero (8-11) is now 0-10 with a 7.69 ERA and a 1.961 WHIP in his last 11 starts. Scherzer, by contrast, is 8-2 with a 2.91 ERA in his last 12 starts, striking out 98 over 77 1/3 innings. Yet after the Jays' late-game rally, it still came down to closer Jose Valverde getting a checked swing call on Encarnacion from first-base umpire Tom Hallion with the potential tying run on base to end it.

They'll take it.

"I didn't know," Laird said of the game's final strike. "I just wanted to sell it, so I asked real hard."

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Anibal back in fine form as Tigers top Jays

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 8/23/2012 12:17 AM ET

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DETROIT -- This is the Anibal Sanchez the Tigers traded top prospects to acquire.

This is the kind of game the Tigers acquired him to win, even though the game-winning delivery came from his catcher to seal a 3-2 victory over the Blue Jays on Wednesday night at Comerica Park.

"Today I just tried to keep the ball on the hitter's bat," Sanchez said. "I just tried to keep the ball on the right spot, tried to make the good pitch in the right moment and just throw my pitch."

When the Tigers skipped Sanchez's rotation spot last week, pitching coach Jeff Jones watched video of Sanchez's starts with the Miami Marlins, trying to find a quirk that might help explain 12 runs on 19 hits in 8 1/3 innings over his previous two outings, or three home runs in his Tigers debut in Toronto on July 28. He ended up talking as much about mind-set as mechanics.

"Don't press," Jones said he told Sanchez last weekend. "Don't try to do more than what you can. I told him, 'You're going to be huge for us down the stretch. You've been successful before and you're going to be successful again.'"

Sanchez seemed to take that to heart.

"I think everything happens for a reason," Sanchez said. "I got a week and a half and I used it to throw an extra bullpen and keep working hard. I don't put my face down -- all the time I put my face up and keep working. I've got more starts and I'm going to keep doing what I did today. ...

"Everything that we do during the week and a half and everything we talked about, that worked. Today I felt more relaxed, I felt more comfortable, and that's why I got the result today."

It couldn't have come at a much better time for the Tigers, who kept pace with the White Sox in the American League Central after another Chicago win against the Yankees. They'll go for a series sweep with Justin Verlander on the mound Thursday afternoon.

They again didn't produce a lot off another Blue Jays lefty, this time journeyman Aaron Laffey. Again, Detroit's pitching made sure they didn't need much.

"His stuff was really electric, probably as crisp as it's been since we got him," catcher Alex Avila said of Sanchez. "He looked great using all his pitches, had real good life on his fastball and good action on everything else."

Four weeks after that three-homer Jays barrage, Sanchez (2-3) allowed a lone extra-base hit in the rematch, a second-inning double with nobody on base. David Cooper's single was the only other hit through five innings until speedy Rajai Davis turned a leadoff walk into a run in the sixth with a stolen base, errant pickoff and an Edwin Encarnacion sinking liner to left.

Sanchez struck out six batters -- all but one of them after the fourth inning, and all swinging.

"Once we got through their lineup and seen them the second, third time around, we were able to mix it up like that," Avila said. "The thing is, he had good command of his offspeed stuff, and when he's able to do that the second or third time through rather than the first time with guys on base, it makes it more effective."

It was the kind of game the injury-plagued Jays, who lost Cooper midway through with a jammed neck, had to try to run their way through rather than homer. For that matter, so did the Tigers.

It took Omar Infante's fourth triple in as many weeks back with the Tigers to ignite the offense against Laffey, who held Detroit hitless the first time through the order. Infante was already at full speed when Davis booted the ball in left-center.

"He got that triple because he busted his tail all the way," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "You get triples out of the box, you don't get them between second and third. That was a big play for us."

That put Infante in position to trot home once Laffey bounced a breaking pitch in front of the plate.

Two aggressive calls from third-base coach Gene Lamont helped the other two runs. He sent Delmon Young against cannon-armed Moises Sierra in right field on Jeff Baker's fifth-inning liner and was rewarded when Sierra fired low and down the line.

Lamont's call on Austin Jackson in the sixth was a little easier after Prince Fielder's blooper fell in short left field.

The Jays matched it quite well the next inning with a hit-and-run play to set up Adeiny Hechevarria's sacrifice fly, but they couldn't run in the tying tally, not even off closer Jose Valverde.

Avila has had walk-off hits, but never a walk-off throw. Even with 45-year-old Omar Vizquel on base after his two-out pinch-hit single in the ninth, though, he was ready.

"He's gotten us so many times," Avila said.

Vizquel once beat the Tigers by stealing home for a go-ahead run in 2003. He was 36 and playing for Cleveland back then. Age might well have slowed him down, but he had to try.

Opponents were 11-for-11 stealing off Valverde this year, and 17-for-17 since Avila threw out Eric Hosmer trying to steal third on July 10, 2011.

"Valverde's a guy that has relatively slow release times," Jays manager John Farrell said. "We feel like even with our medium-speed runners, we're going to force [Avila] to make a perfect throw."

He got it.

"He got a huge jump," Avila said. "When Jose's on the mound and a guy takes off, I just try to get rid of it as quickly as possible and try to put a perfect throw, because I know a perfect throw's the only way I'm going to get a guy with him. I just released it quick enough and got it down there."

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Verlander fans 12 as Tigers walk off with sweep
Avila delivers clutch two-out single in the 11th to beat Blue Jays

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 8/23/2012 7:57 PM ET

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DETROIT -- The Blue Jays went two years and 13 innings between hits off Justin Verlander. They nearly got out of town with two hits strung together being enough for a victory.

Then came Brennan Boesch's first hit in two weeks, followed by what seemed like Austin Jackson's first diving catch in a Tigers uniform. Finally came Alex Avila's first hit in over a week, an 11th-inning single scoring Quintin Berry for a 3-2 walk-off win at Comerica Park.

It took that kind of day for the Tigers to complete a three-game series sweep against an injury-riddled Toronto lineup and pitching staff. But then, it was that kind of series, in which they turned 11 runs over three games into a sweep with two one-run decisions and another game in which they stranded the tying run on base.

"We won, and that's what you look at," said Tigers manager Jim Leyland, whose team pulled within 1 1/2 games of the idle first-place White Sox in the American League Central standings. "We're looking for wins. We've got a good offense. We didn't do a whole lot this series offensively, but I know our offense is good. It could break out at any time. ...

"But this just goes to show you what you talk about from Day 1 of Spring Training: Pitching's going to decide whether you win or not. Fortunately today, Verlander gave us a chance to win the game, and the bullpen did the same thing."

He seemingly had a chance to do more than that. He'll take what they got.

"I feel like this series was a sign of the team grinding it out, doing the little things that you can to win," Verlander said. "We didn't shock and awe anyone. We didn't bang the ball all over the field. We pitched pretty good and had clutch hits when we needed them."

On a day that seemed tailor-made for Verlander to take another shot at history against the team he no-hit in their last meeting, he took a duel with J.A. Happ into the late innings before settling for his first-ever nine-inning no-decision. As it turned out, they were just getting started.

With Jose Bautista not yet back, Adam Lind shelved and David Cooper ailing, the Blue Jays fielded a lineup with three rookies and only Edwin Encarnacion batting better than .253 in extensive playing time. Fitting, then, that Encarnacion had the crushing hit off Verlander, even though it wasn't the first hit.

Verlander held Toronto hitless for three innings with a walk and three strikeouts before Colby Rasmus, mired in an 0-for-26 slump, grounded a single just out of the reach of Omar Infante and through the right side.

It was Toronto's first hit off Verlander since 2010. Four pitches later, they had their second. With one swing on a 1-2 curveball, Encarnacion immediately changed the tone of the game, sending his 33rd homer of the year deep to left for a 2-0 Toronto lead.

"Not a great pitch, but it wasn't a bad one," Verlander said. "Guys like that, that are having years like this, sometimes you've got to tip your hat."

With Miguel Cabrera having left the game in the second inning with a sore right ankle, the Tigers suddenly felt like the offensively hobbled team trying to scratch out runs. And Verlander, not Happ, felt like the hard-luck pitcher. He pitched stronger late and struck out eight Jays in an 11-batter stretch, starting with a 100-mph fastball he blew by Encarnacion on purpose.

Not until the last of them, a strikeout of Kelly Johnson leading off the ninth, did Verlander have new life.

"His pure stuff just kind of beat them, basically, through those innings," Avila said. "The way that Happ was going, I think he was thinking [to] keep them to two runs."

Happ continued Detroit's woes this week against southpaw starters by allowing just three singles over his first seven innings until Avila's leadoff walk in the eighth chased him. When Jackson greeted ex-Tiger Brandon Lyon with an ensuing single, Detroit put its first runner in scoring position.

Up came Boesch to hit in the third spot, where Ramon Santiago had taken Cabrera's spot once he left in the second inning. Leyland had told Boesch he was going to use him at some point, even if it ended up against a left-handed pitcher. Once the Jays brought on lefty Darren Oliver, that was the situation.

Boesch sent the first pitch he saw through the middle, not only plating Avila but sending Jackson to third, where he broke on Oliver's pitch in the dirt to Prince Fielder for the tying run.

Jackson's diving catch on Anthony Gose's liner to right-center kept the game tied in the 10th, but Detroit couldn't convert two chances with Jackson in scoring position in the bottom of the inning. Not until pinch-runner Berry stole second with one out in the 11th, having entered when Delmon Young beat out a double play throw, did the Tigers convert.

It ended up on the shoulders of Avila, who had been 0-for-12 since singling in Minnesota and 1-for-25 with 12 strikeouts over eight games. In his favor, Jays manager John Farrell was out of lefty relievers to throw at him, so he threw a right-hander he had never seen.

"He's got a good sinkerball and he's got a good slider," Avila said. "Basically, my plan was just to get a pitch up. ... That was basically it, just making sure I see it up and put a line drive somewhere."

He sent it right in front of Gose, whose diving catch had robbed Cabrera in the opening inning. Instead of diving, he tried to play the hop for a throw home. Berry gave him no chance.

With that, the game that seemed set up for them finally went their way.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Tigers see streak end after being held to one run

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 8/25/2012 12:32 AM ET

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DETROIT -- Rick Porcello took a scoreless game into the sixth inning for the second straight start. Again he gave up one run-scoring hit. Again the Tigers couldn't answer back for him.

"One mistake for each pitcher," is how catcher Alex Avila summed it up after the Tigers' 2-1 loss to the Angels. "[Ours] came with guys on base."

Six days earlier it was a sinker off the plate that Baltimore's Chris Davis somehow sent over the left-field fence. On Friday it was a slide that set up a slider.

"When I get the ball, I see Torii Hunter," second baseman Omar Infante said of a missed double play opportunity that extended the sixth inning and set up Howard Kendrick's two-run double. "I know he's coming to me to break up the double play. It's a tough play."

The Tigers' struggle for runs, however, has been relatively consistent.

"I think you have to look at the overall picture," manager Jim Leyland said. "There's some nights when maybe a guy didn't pitch quite so good and we just didn't do enough, and then there's other nights when a guy like [Zack] Greinke would locate the ball really good."

Friday's loss, combined with a White Sox walk-off win over the Mariners, dropped the Tigers to 2 1/2 games back in the American League Central. They also fell a game back in the AL Wild Card race.

Greinke was the first right-handed starter the Tigers had seen in a week. And as tough as he was against Detroit during his days with Kansas City, he still had to be a welcome sight for the Tigers after they'd scored just 13 runs off lefty starters over the previous five games.

But once the Tigers saw Greinke looking more like the former Royal who dominated them in 2008 and 2009 on his way to a Cy Young Award than the Angel who had been struggling in his return to the AL, that welcome didn't last.

Greinke dropped slow curveballs over the plate and spotted fastballs on the outside corner for three of his five strikeouts, including one that drew a rare argument from Prince Fielder. In doing so he not only saved an exhausted Angels bullpen, but as in the Tigers' previous three wins, he essentially reduced this contest to a play or two. With Albert Pujols out of the lineup with a sore calf, it was exactly what the Angels wanted.

Greinke knows that feeling here. He pitched seven scoreless innings at Comerica Park in 2009 but watched Jarrod Washburn pitch by far his best game as a Tiger, taking a scoreless game into the ninth before Brandon Inge hit a walk-off homer.

This one seemed headed in that direction until Hunter came into play.

"Break it up," Hunter said of the double play. "Break it up and give ourselves a chance."

When Porcello faced the middle of the Angels' order in the fourth inning, he struck out Hunter, Kendrys Morales and Mark Trumbo in order, using his slider and curveball for to set up his sinker for strike three.

He was rolling, and he had nine outs on ground balls. He needed a 10th.

When Maicer Izturis' leadoff single brought up the middle of the order in the sixth, Porcello worked his pitches in reverse order from the previous time but lost an 0-1 fastball that hit Hunter and moved Izturis into scoring position.

Porcello struck out Morales again, this time using sinkers to set up a curveball that Morales waved at, and got into another 0-2 count on sinkers to Trumbo. When Trumbo grounded an offspeed pitch to Ramon Santiago at third base, it looked like a potential inning-ending double play.

Infante took the ball on the outside of the bag just as Hunter was sliding.

"I got a nice little secondary [lead] so I can get out there a little earlier," Hunter said, "and I hustled and just tried to touch him and alter his throw, and I was able to do that."

Infante was on the ground, flipped over by the slide, as his throw sailed high to first and brought Fielder off the bag. It was a tough play, Infante agreed, but one he felt he could have made.

"I have a chance," Infante said. "If my throw's good, I make the out."

Up came Kendrick with two outs. Again Porcello got an 0-2 count, including a missed bunt attempt. With his breaking ball working, he tried to bury a slider to send Kendrick down.

It was the rare pitch he left up all night, and he paid for it.

"He was keeping the ball down all night, got ground balls when he needed them," Kendrick said. "And sometimes in the game, certain situations, mistakes happen. He had been cruising along all night. and I just happened to get one mistake and put a good swing on it."

Porcello (9-9) gave up two runs on seven hits over six innings, fanning six for the second straight start -- both losses in which the Tigers didn't score while he was in the game. Despite his effectiveness, he hasn't pitched with a lead since he beat the Yankees on Aug. 7.

Miguel Cabrera's 32nd homer of the season halved the deficit and chased Greinke (2-2), but it was too late. The Angels needed just four outs from their bullpen, culminating in Garrett Richards' first big league save.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Jhonny's knock completes Tigers' comeback
Two-out rally in eighth helps Detroit overcome three errors

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 8/26/2012 12:17 AM ET

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DETROIT -- Drew Smyly doesn't show nerves easily. Neither, for that matter, does Jhonny Peralta.

One of them is a veteran shortstop with a history of big hits in his career. The other is a 22-year-old rookie, back in the big leagues only because Doug Fister is injured.

One kept the Tigers from beating themselves early. The other won it for them late with a two-run double in the eighth for a 5-3 comeback victory over the Angels on Saturday night at Comerica Park.

Neither played up their own roles in Detroit's fourth win in five games. If this was the happy ending out of what was mostly a miserable game, they weren't shocked by it.

"A lot of time, it happens," Peralta shrugged. "We'll lose the game early, but by the seventh, eighth, ninth inning, we're coming through. I feel like a lot of time, we're coming through by the end of the game."

This one didn't necessarily have that feeling.

When Prince Fielder doubled into the right-field corner for the first hit of the night and tumbled trying to stop at second base, seemingly trying to avoid the throw, it had the feeling of a long night.

When Austin Jackson committed his first error since June 29, 2011, the night utility player Don Kelly pitched, it felt a little worse.

Even in a one-run game, when Torii Hunter reached behind his shoulder to catch Miguel Cabrera's drive on the warning near the deepest part of right-center field earlier in the eighth inning, it felt like this game was supposed to go against the Tigers.

Not until Fielder was nearly jumping for his joy down the line with the game-tying run, followed closely by Andy Dirks with the go-ahead tally, did this feel like the Tigers' game. Peralta's hit sent them home.

Peralta came to the Tigers two years ago with a reputation for focus in key situations. He hit .307 with runners in scoring position last year, including .380 with two outs, and .278 in the late innings of close games. All of those numbers have taken a tumble this season, but his walk-off home run against the White Sox on May 4 isn't easily forgotten.

He was the Tigers' last hope in a 2-1 game Friday night and struck out chasing a slider from Garrett Richards to end an 0-for-4, two-strikeout game. He didn't forget it when he stepped to the plate against Richards with two outs in the eighth Saturday.

"Yesterday he got me, because I don't see him too well, and he throws a lot of cutters and high fastballs," Peralta said. "Today, I'd already seen him, so today made it easy, because I already know what he's got."

Peralta took a cutter for ball one, then fouled off a fastball over the plate. When Richards came back with the fastball inside, he was ready.

"I learned from yesterday," Peralta said. "Today I got him."

Richards' reaction backed it up.

"I didn't change my mentality [from last night]," he said. "I was filling up the zone. Probably the ball that Peralta hit down the line was up in the zone, but I wasn't going to change my approach."

Catcher Alex Avila compares Peralta's consistent approach emotionally with a former teammate, Placido Polanco -- "a perfect pro," as Avila called it. It's not that Peralta doesn't feel emotions, he said, but he doesn't show it.

Avila has seen tough breaks snowball on Smyly, but not flummox him.

"That's just because he's a young guy learning how to pitch," Avila said. "But the thing about him is you feel pretty comfortable he's going to make a good pitch, because nothing really rattles him. He's very confident. He doesn't seem to get distracted very easily, or really doesn't care what the heck's going on around him. He just worries about making a pitch."

Smyly's reaction to three errors behind him was an example. Add two unearned runs to the run the Tigers missed out on when Young doubled after Fielder's out at second, and miscues meant a three-run swing.

The errors behind him, Smyly shrugged off.

"That stuff happens," he said. "Whether he hits a liner off the wall or someone makes an error, he's on base, and you have to work through it. It doesn't really matter how he got there, as long as you can bear down and try to keep him from scoring."

Smyly had mixed results at that, but he kept the Tigers in the game. After Jackson's error and Erick Aybar's RBI double, the Angels had a 3-0 lead and a chance for more. Avila threw out Aybar trying to steal third, denying the Angels a run on Vernon Wells' ensuing single, before Smyly struck out Bobby Wilson.

Smyly has pitched some gems in his first big league season, from his first Major League victory at Yankee Stadium in April to a 10-strikeout gem against the Royals in his last Major League start July 6. He left with a no-decision Saturday after four hits and one earned run over six innings, yet valued this one more.

"I'd say it's at the top," Smyly said. "It's been two months since I've pitched out there, and against a heavy right-handed lineup in the Angels. We were down the whole game and all you can do is just try to keep your team in the game. It's just a matter of time until they put hits together like they did in the eighth.

"Down 3-0, that's nothing to us. We came back and won it."

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Scherzer, Tigers pick up slack with Miggy out

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 8/26/2012 7:00 PM ET

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DETROIT -- Jim Leyland tossed and turned all Saturday night and into Sunday morning before deciding not to play Miguel Cabrera. Then, his pitchers took away Mike Trout and Mark Trumbo again on Sunday afternoon.

Credit the middle of the Tigers' order -- from fill-in third hitter Andy Dirks to Prince Fielder and Delmon Young -- for stepping up in Cabrera's absence and powering Detroit with a three-run sixth inning in a 5-2 win over the Angels. Credit Tigers pitchers, especially Max Scherzer, for preventing the Angels from doing much of anything in the absence of Albert Pujols.

Credit Leyland, too, with making a gutsy call. He sat with a look of relief in his office after Sunday's rubber-game victory, as he recalled how on Sunday morning he wasn't going to let one game in August overrule his better judgment on Cabrera. The slugger was limited to designated-hitter duties in the previous two games by a sore right ankle.

Still, the win was big -- not only for the 6-3 homestand or the additional game over a potential American League Wild Card combatant -- but for the tone of the team.

"I really found something out about our guys today, I think," Leyland said. "I think they knew with the big guy out of there, [they needed to do something]. I think some guys really stepped up and responded."

It was a big burden for the hitters to carry.

"It's hard to pick up what he does," Fielder said. "You just want to play good baseball."

It was the same job for Scherzer, at least the way he saw it.

"Going into today, we needed to win this game," Scherzer said. "We needed to win this series. With Miguel in the lineup, I'm going to have the same mentality as with Miguel out of the lineup. For me, I was going out there to win the series today. That was my mentality."

For the second time this week, the Tigers won a series by scoring 11 runs over three games. They swept Toronto earlier by holding an injury-depleted Blue Jays lineup to seven runs.

The Angels were missing Pujols due to a bad right calf, but they still had AL Most Valuable Player candidate Trout and 30-homer-slugger Trumbo. The duo combined for four home runs, eight RBIs and eight runs over four games at Comerica Park last month.

When Trout turned a leadoff infield single into a first-inning run on Sunday by speeding from first base to third on a Maicer Izturis single to left, it was the first time either had been heard from in this series. It ended up being the last.

"I think that was one of the big keys to the series, without question," Leyland said. "We did a very good job with Trout, and we did a terrific job against Trumbo, keeping him in the park. That's 54 home runs you're talking about between the two of them."

Trout became the first player to score 100 runs this season, but struck out his next three times up. He finished the series 1-for-13 with five strikeouts. After he reached on a fielder's choice on Friday and a strikeout-wild pitch on Saturday, Trout was erased both times on double plays.

It marked just the third time in Trout's historic rookie season that he has been held to a lone hit over a three-game series in which he started each game.

"When he gets on base," catcher Gerald Laird said, "you have to make him earn it."

Trumbo, meanwhile, went 1-for-11 with a single and seven strikeouts. The only ball he hit out of the infield was a line drive to right field to start the series.

"There were a couple pitches [on Sunday where] I just think he was getting out of his plan, and I could tell as a catcher just by the body language and [him] talking to himself," Laird said. "He was maybe having trouble seeing the ball."

Scherzer (14-6) nearly duplicated his line from his start against the Angels six weeks ago, striking out nine over seven innings to recapture the Major League strikeout lead from teammate Justin Verlander, who will have a chance to take it back on Tuesday in Kansas City.

Scherzer retired 17 of his last 18 batters, eight by strikeout, after Vernon Wells' second-inning walk.

"Personally, I had a very difficult time picking up the baseball," said Angels catcher Chris Iannetta, 4-for-6 off Scherzer previously but a two-time strikeout victim on Sunday. "I've faced him in the past -- and he's very good, obviously. But I never felt like I didn't see it. Today, I couldn't pick it up until it was about halfway to the plate."

Scherzer has pitched seven innings allowing one run or fewer in each of his last three starts -- allowing two runs on 13 hits over 21 innings, with six walks and 27 strikeouts.

He didn't have a chance to pitch with a lead until his seventh and final inning. The makeshift middle of the order eventually broke through against Santana in the sixth, dealing him his first loss since July 21 and also his first loss in his last five outings against the Tigers.

Santana (7-11) retired seven of eight batters after Andy Dirks tripled in Omar Infante with two outs in the third to tie the game. But he paid dearly for walking Dirks to lead off the sixth. After spotting a first-pitch strike to Fielder, he left a fastball over the plate, which Fielder drove deep to right field for his 23rd home run of the year and a 3-1 lead.

"He made a mistake and we were able to capitalize on it," Fielder said. "He pitched well. He didn't make many mistakes. We just had to be patient."

The buzz had barely quieted over Fielder's shot when Santana left a slider over the plate for Young, whose penchant for pouncing on first pitches served him well. His drive to left was his 14th home run of the year.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Verlander labors as Tigers can't slow Royals
Right-hander allows eight earned runs as offense does its part

By Vinnie Duber / MLB.com | 8/29/2012 1:50 AM ET

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KANSAS CITY -- Tigers manager Jim Leyland said it best.

"When you score that amount of runs with [Justin] Verlander on the mound, you figure you're going to win the game.

"But that didn't happen."

Verlander had an uncharacteristic night, allowing eight runs to the Royals, a team he's frequently dominated, as the Tigers dropped a 9-8 decision in the series opener at Kauffman Stadium.

The Tigers' eight-run output was the most they had scored since Aug. 14. But their ace right-hander allowed a season-high eight runs on a season-high 12 hits. The last time Verlander gave up eight runs in a game was April 6, 2009, Opening Day against the Blue Jays, and the last time he allowed 12 hits was Aug. 11, 2006, against the White Sox, when he gave up 13.

Despite their starter's unusual outing, the Tigers were right in it until the end, and nearly captured the lead in the ninth inning.

Trailing 9-8 with two outs and runners at the corners, Delmon Young -- who homered in the first inning -- crushed the first pitch he saw from Royals closer Greg Holland into the right-field corner. Initially called a foul ball, umpires reviewed the play and upheld it. Young then flew out to deep left field to end the game.

"Well it was a foul ball. It went before the pole, curved. It was definitely a foul ball," Leyland said. "The umpires, I really appreciate them looking at it. These games are huge, obviously, and they really did a good job of doing that. You can't ask them to do it. They did it on their own, and the right results came out of it. It was not a home run."

"That's what replay's for. I couldn't tell," Young said.

No matter how close it was, though, it was Verlander's performance that put the Tigers in such a deep hole.

Perhaps calling Verlander's outing uncharacteristic is a bit of an understatement. The Royals came in having never scored more than five runs against the Detroit ace. But they plated three in the first and four in the second. After two innings, Verlander had allowed seven runs on 10 hits in 56 pitches.

"It was just one of those nights. Just sometimes it's just not your day, and it wasn't his day," Leyland said. "A lot of people thought it was the second inning that did us in, but I think it was the first inning that hurt us because he got the first two quick outs and then they put the three-spot up. The second inning, they didn't really hit the ball very hard. They found a lot of holes, to their credit. I'm not taking anything away from them, obviously. But I thought the first inning was the key inning."

After striking out the first two batters he faced, Verlander allowed four two-out hits -- two singles and two doubles -- with Mike Moustakas' two-run single as the inning's biggest blow. In the second, five straight one-out hits, highlighted by Alex Gordon's two-run double, produced four runs -- more than Verlander had allowed in the 26 prior second innings he'd pitched all year.

Verlander settled down, allowing zero runs and one hit in the following three innings, but come the bottom of the sixth, the Royals struck again. Salvador Perez drove in a run with a double to left field, upping the score to 8-6 and chasing Verlander from the game.

"I feel like most of the hard balls they hit all day were in that first inning, and just because I missed location. From there forward I made some pretty good pitches, and they just put them in play in the right spots," Verlander said.

"We had a good approach against him tonight," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "Justin's probably over there saying he wasn't real sharp tonight, but you take advantage of 'em when you can and we put seven runs on the board, and that's a great job against a pitcher of his caliber."

It was a close game throughout. The Tigers' offense did nearly as much damage against Royals starter Luis Mendoza, scoring three runs in both the first and third innings.

When Kansas City scored to make it a two-run game in the sixth, Miguel Cabrera delivered an RBI single in the seventh, and Jhonny Peralta crushed a solo home run to tie the game in the eighth.

The Royals recaptured the lead in the bottom half when Moustakas doubled off reliever Phil Coke to plate pinch-runner Lorenzo Cain. Reliever Brayan Villarreal, who gave up a single to Billy Butler, took the loss, his fourth of the season.

Still, to come as close as they did after such a rough performance by their starting pitcher was pretty remarkable, at least in Verlander's opinion.

"A lot of credit goes to those guys, too. I think it's easy for a team -- when the No. 1 guy's out there -- if he gives up runs, it's easy for the team to kind of shut down. But we didn't do that. We battled the whole way and came within inches of having a good chance to win it," he said.

Vinnie Duber is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Tigers' bats can't back Anibal in loss to KC
Righty goes seven solid frames as Detroit drops second in set

By Vinnie Duber / MLB.com | 8/30/2012 12:30 AM ET


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KANSAS CITY -- So far it's been a series dominated by pitching performances at Kauffman Stadium.

After Justin Verlander uncharacteristically allowed eight runs in the opener, right-hander Anibal Sanchez went seven strong innings, only to be outdone by Royals lefty Bruce Chen, as the Tigers came up short in a 1-0 loss on Wednesday night.

Chen -- who surrendered six runs on nine hits in his last outing against the Tigers on July 7 -- completely shut down the Detroit offense in the rematch, sending the Tigers to their second consecutive loss.

Chen tossed eight scoreless innings and limited the Tigers to just four hits in earning his 10th win. He scattered six baserunners and got into just two jams the entire night.

"Well, he was awful good," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "He made it look pretty easy, to be honest with you. He was good. He cuts the ball and changes it up, backdoor breaking ball. He really knows what he's doing, obviously. He's not overpowering, as anybody can see. He pitched a great game."

Chen's dominance overshadowed the work of Sanchez, who, by all accounts, pitched his best game since joining the Tigers. The righty went seven innings, allowing just one run on seven hits.

"Today, I felt more comfortable," Sanchez said. "I worked with the pitching coach [Jeff] Jones. We tried to keep the ball down, make every pitch really aggressive, try to be ahead in the count. Today, there were a couple hitters where I was behind in the count, but I fought back. If the hitter stays in the box, I have a chance to get an out. They took a lot of swings, too. Today, I think was my first game where I got just one strikeout."

The Royals put some strong swings on the ball to start the fourth inning as they scored the game's only run. Billy Butler drove a fly ball to deep center, but Austin Jackson made a jumping catch up against the wall to rob him of a hit. Mike Moustakas then roped a double down the right-field line and moved to third on a groundout.

With two outs, the softest of hits, a blooper off the bat of Eric Hosmer, landed between the mound and second base and scored Moustakas to put the Royals in front.

"They got a jam shot tonight, the guy beat it out, obviously. That's all part of the game. I have no complaints about stuff like that. That's baseball," Leyland said. "We have no excuse. We didn't score runs. It's hard to complain about a play like that when you don't score runs."

Sanchez retired 10 of the final 11 batters he faced. The only scoring chance came in the bottom of the seventh, when he stranded a runner at second base.

"I thought he mixed well. I thought is velocity was good. He picked up a little extra when he needed it. As the game went on, he got the ball down better," Leyland said. "They hit a couple balls hard early, but then he settled in. He really showed me something his last inning out there. That was quite a few pitches for him. ... And he was up to the challenge. I felt he deserved to be out there. He rewarded the confidence I had in him by getting those guys out."

But, as good as Sanchez was, Chen was better.

"He hits his spots pretty well with all his pitches," Jackson said. "He changes his speeds on you when he goes in, out, up, down, and he keeps you off-balance. He could throw any pitch at any time, and he did that tonight."

The third time proved to be the charm for the Kansas City lefty, who had lost two prior meetings with the Tigers this season. Entering Wednesday night's game, he was 4-5 in his career against Detroit with a 6.10 ERA.

The Tigers rarely threatened, but they twice stranded a runner at third with fewer than two outs. Jackson was at third with one out in the first when Chen struck out Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder.

"Those are two very good hitters," Chen said. "They can smell an RBI, and I just made good pitches. I think me and [catcher Brayan Pena] had a very good game plan against those two guys, and we executed it very well."

Chen faced runners at the corners with one out in the seventh, but he struck out Jhonny Peralta and got Jeff Baker to ground out to end the inning.

The veteran lefty also received a good deal of help from his defense, particularly from Moustakas, who engineered a pair of double plays and made a nice play on a pop-up to end the sixth inning.

But the biggest defensive play of the night came in the ninth when, for the second straight night, the Tigers mounted a threat against Royals closer Greg Holland. Andy Dirks singled up the middle to lead things off, and Cabrera lined a fly ball to center. But Jarrod Dyson made a great sliding catch to take a hit away from Cabrera and preserve the narrow one-run lead.

"That was a good catch, especially in that situation. If he misses that ball, it may change the game a little bit," Jackson said. "We didn't really have too much going on, and the plays that they made pretty much summed the game up. It could've been a little different if a couple of those balls would've got through, if Miggy's ball would've fell. They made good plays on them."

Vinnie Duber is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Porcello, Tigers can't get past Royals in finale
Right-hander comes undone in sixth frame as offense struggles

By Vinnie Duber / MLB.com | 8/31/2012 12:50 AM ET

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KANSAS CITY -- Rick Porcello's hard luck continued on Thursday night.

For the third straight start, the right-hander allowed three runs or fewer, and for the third straight outing, he took the loss, as the Tigers dropped a 2-1 decision to the Royals at Kauffman Stadium.

The Tigers were swept for the first time since dropping three straight to Cleveland on May 22-24.

All three games against Kansas City ended in one-run decisions -- the final two featuring solid pitching performances on both sides. Porcello allowed only two runs over five innings, but sustained his 10th loss of the year.

"He did great. He gave us a good chance to win that ballgame right there," Tigers outfielder Andy Dirks said. "But him -- and Anibal [Sanchez] pitched good the night before -- it's kind of one of those things where our offense didn't come through."

Porcello was sharp through the first four innings, allowing just three singles and a walk with no Royals player reaching second base. But he found himself in a tough situation in the fifth, loading the bases with none out. Royals second baseman Johnny Giavotella hit a slow bouncer to shortstop that resulted in an RBI fielder's choice and broke the scoreless tie.

The inning lasted 35 pitches for the Detroit right-hander, and he was quickly back on the hill following a seven-pitch top of the sixth. That's when he got into trouble. Alex Gordon belted his 10th home run of the season to lead off the inning and put Kansas City up by two. Billy Butler followed with a line shot double into the left-field corner, Salvador Perez singled up the middle and Porcello's night was over.

Darin Downs did a nice job in relief to end the inning with no further damage with a little help from his defense. Butler was at third when Downs' pitch got past Gerald Laird. The ball, however, bounced off the backstop and right to the catcher and his flip to Downs covering the plate retired Butler.

"We were fortunate enough to get out of that [fifth] inning with only one run. And then in the sixth inning: That's the inning where I've got to be able to close and get us back in the dugout. It didn't happen, obviously," Porcello said. "It could've been a lot worse. Downs came in and did a heck of a job not letting anybody score. ... The sixth inning just got away from me a little bit."

"It was a little bit strange because he was really on a roll, and that inning he got the ball up a little bit and the next inning he started to really get it up," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "I thought he was on a roll. It looked like he was going to have a real good night."

But for the second straight game, Kansas City's starter was just a bit better. Jeremy Guthrie followed Bruce Chen's eight scoreless innings on Wednesday with 7 1/3 of one-run baseball. Guthrie didn't allow anything more than a smattering of singles, aside from Prince Fielder's leadoff double in the sixth inning.

"I was going to go out there and throw strikes, and when you throw strikes, guys put some swings on them. The biggest thing was I was able to keep nine of them to singles and just allow one extra-base hit," Guthrie said. "That was kind of the big key in terms of allowing hits but no runs."

Detroit outhit Kansas City, 12-9. After the game, the Tigers lamented the lack of the big hit, with Leyland getting more specific.

"It just seems like -- first and second, one out -- in those situations we're not getting a tweener to clean the bases and have a guy at second, nobody out. We're not scoring both runs from first. It seems like that's kind of been an eyesore for us all year long," Leyland said.

"For the most part, we swung the bats decent. We just didn't get those hits at the right time, and that's been something that's really plagued us all year."

"We just didn't get the big hit with runners on," outfielder Brennan Boesch said. "We got hits but we didn't score runs. Obviously, when you get hits and don't score runs, those hits aren't doing any good."

The Tigers managed to get on the board late with Jhonny Peralta delivering an RBI single off reliever Tim Collins in the eighth shortly after Guthrie left the game. Guthrie allowed one run on 10 hits and earned his third win since joining the Royals.

The game's final play was emblematic of the close-but-no-cigar series for the Tigers. With runners at first and second and one out, Miguel Cabrera bounced a ground ball to second base. Giavotella flipped to Alcides Escobar, who leaped over a sliding Dirks. Escobar jumped and landed before making a throw to first base, and Cabrera was still out.

A sweep at the hands of the sub-.500 Royals comes at an inopportune time for the Tigers. The American League Central-leading White Sox dropped three of four in their recently completed series with the Orioles, but still managed to gain a half game in the standings.

"We're a much better team than what we showed these past three games," Porcello said. "I think for us to be looking at what Chicago's doing and what's happening with them would be a mistake. I think we need to focus on ourselves and playing good baseball. Chicago, they're going to do what they're going to do. We've got to go out there and play good baseball and win games, and see how it turns out. We can't sit around and wait for other teams to lose. We've got to take the bull by the horns and go out and simply beat teams.

"That's it: just win."

The Tigers and White Sox begin a three-game series at Comerica Park on Friday.

Vinnie Duber is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Young's clutch double delivers series-opening win
Tigers cut deficit to two; Cabrera goes 3-for-4 with a homer

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 9/1/2012 12:47 AM ET

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DETROIT -- The Tigers spent three nights looking for a big hit with runners in scoring position in Kansas City. Their search for a big hit with the bases loaded went on a lot longer than that.

With one Delmon Young go-ahead double, they found it at home against the team they needed to beat most, from the hitter who arguably needed one the worst.

"That's one of those hits we've really been looking for all year, not just from Delmon," manager Jim Leyland said after the bases-clearing double sent the Tigers to a 7-4 win over the White Sox Friday night at Comerica Park. "We haven't cleared the bases many times with a hit like that, and we got one tonight."

They couldn't have timed it much better.

The Tigers' struggles scoring runs in Kansas City left them heading into this divisional clash perilously close to a must-win situation. A sweep would deadlock the division heading into the season's final month. Winning two out of three would whittle the deficit to two games with four games left in Chicago next month.

A loss Friday, on the other hand, would've sent them into September with a four-game deficit. The Cardinals and Rays last year showed that big September gaps are nothing for the Wild Card, but just three teams in the three-division era have rallied from four or more games back on Sept. 1 to win a division. The last team to do it, the 2006 Twins, beat the Tigers to do it.

For about six innings, Friday felt like a game that could put them there. While the Tigers scored all their runs on extra-base hits, three on home runs from Miguel Cabrera and Jhonny Peralta, the White Sox drove in three of their runs without hits -- partly helped by Detroit's defensive struggles -- to tie the game after six innings.

Eventually, Tigers hitting won out, doing so in its least productive situation. In so doing, Detroit moved to two games back with their top two starters, Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, pitching the next two games of the series.

Their lack of grand slams is well known, joining the Twins as the only Major League teams without one this season. Beyond that, though, no American League team entered Friday with a lower batting average in bases-loaded situations than the Tigers, .198 (19-for-57). Just four of those 19 hits had gone for extra bases, all of them doubles.

Detroit missed out on a bases-loaded opportunity in the opening frame Friday when Alex Avila grounded into an inning-ending double play, closing out a chance to compound Cabrera's two-run homer. Jake Peavy gave up single runs in the second and fourth innings from there, but avoided the knockout punch to last into the seventh.

A leadoff walk to Andy Dirks and another Cabrera hit, this time a single, knocked Peavy out to bring in lefty Matt Thornton against Prince Fielder.

Once Thornton's 1-1 pitch hit Fielder in the back, the lefty-lefty matchup was gone, but the bases-loaded chance was in play. Up came Young, 0-for-8 with the bases loaded, albeit with a walk and three RBIs. Only Cleveland's Casey Kotchman entered the night hitless in more bases-loaded at-bats among AL hitters.

Statistically, one can argue, he was due. He was also 3-for-7 lifetime off Thornton.

"I was trying to get a ground ball in that situation," Thornton said. "I'm in a heck of a jam, bases loaded, no outs. I'm trying to get in there on his hands so he can roll something over."

Young described what he got in one word: "Fastball."

Leyland's description summed up the importance of one well-timed drive into the gap.

"This is the type of hit that we've been looking for all year," Leyland said. "We finally got one, and Delmon got a big one at the right time."

It continued what has been a late-season drive for Young, who heads into free agency this winter with no role guaranteed. He's batting .326 (28-for-86) over his last 22 games with eight doubles, three homers and 13 RBIs.

He would've had another clutch homer in Kansas City had his shot just stayed on the fair side of the pole. He'll take a gapper.

"It doesn't really matter," Young said. "We're just trying to win ballgames."

With that, the Tigers won a Peavy start for the fourth time in five meetings this season, though two ended up no-decisions for Chicago's ace. Friday's loss left Peavy (9-10) winless in his last five starts.

Former White Sox reliever Octavio Dotel (5-2) picked up the win with 1 2/3 scoreless innings, stranding A.J. Pierzynski following his leadoff double in the seventh. Jose Valverde pitched the ninth for his 27th save.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Tigers one back after Scherzer's gem
Righty tosses eight scoreless; Avisail records first hit, RBI

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 9/2/2012 12:39 AM ET

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DETROIT -- The big showdown for the Tigers and White Sox awaits Sunday night. The big performance from Detroit's other shutdown pitcher put a little bit more on the line for it.

If the Tigers are heading for another late-season run to take the American League Central, that combination of Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander might be the best factor in their favor.

Whether Verlander can take the mound Sunday night and duplicate the eight scoreless innings and nine strikeouts Scherzer posted in Saturday's 5-1 win over the White Sox won't decide the division race, not this soon. It did last year around this time because the Tigers were already ahead, but Saturday's win just brought them to within one game of first-place Chicago.

If Verlander can get back to his usual form, hold down the White Sox and outpitch Chris Sale, though, it turns the AL Central into a 29-game sprint with the two teams tied heading into Labor Day. Detroit would have Scherzer and Verlander for potentially 16 of those games, including two of the four games in Chicago in two weeks.

The White Sox know what Verlander can do, because they saw it last year. Saturday night was a good look at what Scherzer's doing now.

"That's as good of a performance we've had thrown against us, just stuff-wise," White Sox manager Robin Ventura said, "and I'm watching from the side. But watching what he's doing, it looks like the ball is moving. To me, he looked like he was inside, outside, spotting them and up and down.

"It wasn't just one pitch he was throwing. He was on with everything."

Alex Avila has had one of the best views of all over the past month. He caught Scherzer when he dominated hitters for the better part of four months in 2010. Catching him now, he's seeing the best stuff Scherzer has thrown.

"This is the best I've seen him, the way he's pitched lately," Avila said. "You can tell he's kind of taking it to the next level, being a guy who always had great stuff and would throw together some really good games and some bad games, to know it's an expected quality start or he's going to give you an outing like this every time. That's a credit to his stuff."

Paul Konerko, one of the toughest sluggers to strike out in the league, has struck out three times in a game against a starting pitcher just three times in the last four years. Scherzer has now done it to him twice in as many years.

"We've seen him a lot," Konerko said, "but tonight he didn't make any mistakes, over the plate either. Hit his spot or missed off the plate. There wasn't too much over the middle of the plate."

Konerko didn't put a ball in play against him Saturday. The only two pitches he made contact on were 97-mph fastballs fouled back, one for strike three on a first-inning foul tip, the other to stay alive in the sixth inning with a runner on second.

In that case, it merely set up the slider Scherzer threw for a swing and miss to keep the White Sox scoreless and drop them to 0-for-17 with runners in scoring position for the series.

"I didn't feel great off him," Konerko said, "but if I did, it might have just prolonged it a pitch or two. When he's locked in, he's a handful."

Said Scherzer: "You have to constantly make adjustments to a hitter of his caliber. You're aware of everything you've done to him, what you did to him the previous two at-bats and what you need to do to him now. ... Alex and I, we game plan those situations, what pitch you want in that situation. We had a good feel for what we wanted to sequence in that third at-bat to get an out in that situation."

After Detroit pitching held the White Sox 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position Friday night to survive a short outing from Doug Fister, Scherzer didn't allow them nearly as many chances Saturday night, and none with more than one runner on.

Scherzer's career-best fifth consecutive win was his fourth straight with at least seven innings and a run or less allowed. He has allowed two runs on 17 hits over 29 innings in that stretch with seven walks and 36 strikeouts.

As a result, Scherzer has back-to-back 15-win seasons, making him the first Tigers pitcher other than Verlander to do it since Walt Terrell had three straight from 1985-87.

In some ways, Francisco Liriano was an example of what Scherzer has battled at times, including early this year -- dominant stuff, but inconsistent pitching. Part of Liriano's downfall Saturday was self-inflicted, with seven walks -- six unintentional -- over his first four innings. By the time Liriano retired Prince Fielder to end the fourth, he had thrown 99 pitches in what was then a 2-0 game.

Liriano's 100th pitch was his last, sent off the left-field fence by Delmon Young for a leadoff triple before Avisail Garcia singled him in three batters later for a 3-0 lead on his first big league hit and RBI. Young attacked the first pitch he saw in the seventh off Jesse Crain and sent it out for his 16th home run.

Young is batting 12-for-27 over his last seven games. Miguel Cabrera finished 3-for-4 and drove in two runs, including Austin Jackson following his triple in the eighth.

Jose Valverde allowed Chicago's lone run in the ninth inning on Konerko's double and Orlando Hudson's triple.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Young, Verlander move Tigers into first-place tie
Outfielder hits three-run homer; ace fans 11 over eight innings

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 9/3/2012 1:13 AM ET

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DETROIT -- All that's left to separate the Tigers and White Sox, now tied atop the American League Central, is a month-long sprint to the finish.

All that separated their aces Sunday night was one sixth-inning slider from Chris Sale, who has befuddled most AL hitters all season. He flummoxed Delmon Young all night until Young finally got a hold of one swinging from his shoetops.

He won't claim any game plan for his three-run homer that became the difference in a 4-2 win to finish off a series sweep before a sellout crowd at Comerica Park.

"It should've been strike three," Young shrugged. "The ball was in the dirt. I just got lucky."

The Tigers can't count on the same kind of fortune to carry them through this race. They only seem to have it against Sale (15-6), now 0-3 against the Tigers this year and 15-3 against everybody else.

"I just fell a little short," Sale said. "Delmon put a good swing on what I thought was a decent pitch. Just went their way."

Three days after Tigers fans worried they might have a lost season, they essentially have a new one. Their second three-game sweep of the White Sox in six weeks, and their second such sweep over the Labor Day weekend in two years, moved Detroit back to even in the division race for the first time since July 25, three days after they last swept the White Sox to take the division lead.

It wasn't the Super Bowl, as manager Jim Leyland put it, and they have to play better over the next few weeks than they did coming out of their last sweep. Nonetheless, it's a boost.

"We just beat a very good team, a team that's been in first place for the most part of the year, and it's going to be hard to take that away from them," Leyland said. "They're good and they've answered every bell so far. We just got to play baseball and continue to enjoy it."

Both Sale and Justin Verlander rebounded from drubbings in their previous starts -- Verlander taking a 12-hit barrage in Kansas City, Sale lasting just five innings in Baltimore. Both allowed solo home runs. Verlander to Alejandro De Aza on the game's second pitch, Sale to Brennan Boesch in the fifth inning after allowing one hit over the first four.

Verlander settled in. After stranding Dewayne Wise on second with back-to-back strikeouts of Paul Konerko and Alex Rios, the reigning AL MVP allowed just two singles over his final seven innings.

Verlander retired the side in order in just three of those innings, yet seemed able to garner swings and misses when needed. Working a game plan with catcher Gerald Laird, he threw only one curveball the first time through Chicago's lineup, then eight the next time around. Eventually, he settled in with his usual late-inning fastball, hitting 100 mph on the Comerica Park radar gun in the eighth inning as he crossed the 120-pitch mark.

It ended up a classic Verlander outing against a team he has pretty well owned ever since it roughed him up for his first three seasons. He's 12-1 against the White Sox since 2009, 11 of them quality starts. Even so, Sunday marked the first time Verlander piled up double-digit strikeouts against his old nemesis.

"His slider was good tonight. His curveball was good tonight," Laird said. "He mixed in some good changeups when he needed to. I thought we mixed it up really well, and after that first hitter [homered], he kind of settled down a little bit. I think the electricity going through the stadium, he wants to step up in the spotlight."

The only time Laird worried about Verlander falling out of that rhythm was when the intensity crept into the batter's box. When A.J. Pierzynski swung and missed on a 1-0 changeup in the seventh inning, he gave some feedback. When Verlander sent Pierzynski down swinging at a 99-mph fastball three pitches later, he gave it back.

"He yelled two words that I could not repeat, either one of them," Verlander said. "So I had some words back at him once he struck out."

Laird quickly made a mound visit to get Verlander turned away. Pierzynski later said there was no malice, and that he has the utmost respect for him.

"The way [Max] Scherzer and Verlander pitched the last couple of nights make it tough on anybody," Pierzynski said. "You could throw the '27 Yankees out there and they're going to get them out."

The Tigers felt the same about Sale's late-breaking slider, which racked up strikeouts and groundouts alike. Boesch's game-tying drive to center, his first homer since July 22, was just the fourth ball out of the infield off Sale.

An inning later, after Omar Infante's single and a four-pitch walk to Miguel Cabrera, Sale struck out Prince Fielder with one of his best sliders of the night. He was set to do the same to Young, who had fanned twice already.

Young didn't see a fastball all night long. He saw sliders on nine of Sale's 13 pitches to him. The last, Leyland said, was "low, but not quite as low."

Young lined it over the left-field fence.

"Just made contact and got lucky," Young repeated. "You try to put a ball in play and hope for the best."

Young is batting 13-for-30 over his last eight games with four home runs and 11 RBIs.

"He's been locked in," Boesch said. "When you've got a hitter that gets locked in like that, he can carry a team and that's really what he's been doing."

Jose Valverde gave up a two-out run in the ninth before closing out his 28th save in 32 chances.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Anibal strong again, but Tigers fall to Tribe

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 9/3/2012 6:30 PM ET

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DETROIT -- The euphoria of the Tigers' return to the American League Central lead came and went about as quickly as the Indians on the basepaths. But they weren't calling their 3-2 loss a Labor Day trap.

They knew they were going to have a quick turnaround from Sunday night's finale against the White Sox to Monday afternoon's opener against the Tribe, no matter how quickly Justin Verlander tried to get them out of there on Sunday.

They knew the fourth-place Indians were trouble the last time the Tigers swept Chicago to change the picture of the division race. Cleveland was struggling then, and Detroit's visit at the end of July was arguably the last sign of life for the Tribe before they lost 29 of their next 35. The Indians had won one road game since July 19.

The Tigers knew they came into the White Sox series coming off a sweep in Kansas City, a scenario catcher Gerald Laird suggested might have included them looking too far ahead.

They knew it would be difficult to duplicate the intensity of a playoff atmosphere, no matter the mood in the stands at Comerica Park.

They saw the scenario for a trap.

"We have to take it one series at a time, one game at a time and not overlook anybody," catcher Gerald Laird said after Sunday's game, "because anybody can beat us at any time."

Come Monday, Corey Kluber (1-3) beat them for his first Major League win in seven starts, with a little help from Asdrubal Cabrera. Neither trap nor letdown nor fatigue were keywords in the Tigers clubhouse.

"I'm sure people are going to say that. I disagree with that, totally," manager Jim Leyland said. "And the reason I disagree with that totally is, we came out the first inning and loaded the bases. Quintin Berry started the game with a base hit. So what's not ready?

"We came out in the first inning and loaded the bases with one out for a guy who hit a 422-foot line drive home run last night. So I don't buy that, no."

That scenario, though, was familiar, because they had chances like that in Kansas City. Four of their first five hitters reached base safely on Kluber -- two ground-ball singles, a Miguel Cabrera walk and a Prince Fielder hit-by-pitch. Delmon Young's single drove in Berry to tie the game.

They still had the bases loaded for Brennan Boesch, who hit the aforementioned home run on Sunday night. Kluber escaped with a double play and settled in.

"I think that all sounds good," Leyland continued. "Well, maybe could you have been a little tired? Everybody's tired a little bit, but that had nothing to do with it. I didn't see any of that. Who's not ready? Everybody's ready. We just didn't break it open early when we had a shot, and we didn't get the big hit late when we had a shot."

They had their chances in between. Half of the six hits off Kluber came in a three-batter stretch to begin the fourth inning. Young's double to start it was their only extra-base hit off of Kluber. Jhonny Peralta's single off the left-field fence was their last hit of any sort of against Kluber before he retired the final eight batters he faced, starting with a double play from struggling Alex Avila.

Avila didn't play on Sunday night, so his turnaround wasn't quite the same. Still, he saw the question coming.

"There's no letdown or anything like that," said Avila, whose 0-for-15 slump included the game-ending groundout with the potential winning run on base. "I mean, there's definitely a challenge because of the lack of sleep and everything like that. But at the same time, you've done it before. You just have to be able to find a way to win. There's been times we've been able to win a game like that, and today we weren't able to."

The fourth-inning rally got Anibal Sanchez off the hook after two unearned runs in the first three innings, both set up by Avila miscues, but it couldn't get them ahead. Once the Indians loaded the bases with one out off lefty Darin Downs (1-1) in the seventh, the Tigers had to hope for a strikeout or a double play.

In the choice of strikeout specialists, Leyland opted for rookie Brayan Villarreal over just-recalled Al Alburquerque. Villarreal tuned up his fastball to 99 mph to put Asdrubal Cabrera in a 1-2 count, but Cabrera fouled off another heater before lifting another deep enough to center to allow Lou Marson to score easily.

"You're hoping to get a strikeout or a pop-up, so you bring in the harder thrower to try to get one of those accomplished," Leyland said. "He almost got him, but he saw a couple more pitches after he fouled one off for the second strike. When you know you're pretty much going to get fastball, eventually you can keep charging it and you'll probably put it in play. That's what he did, to his credit. He's a good hitter."

The Indians looked like the team with more energy, perception or otherwise. Their long at-bats used up 100 pitches from Sanchez by the time he got an out in the sixth. They went 4-for-4 on stolen bases, some on throws from Avila, some on long deliveries from Tigers pitchers.

"I'll tell you what, we don't have time to be thinking about spoilers," Tribe manager Manny Acta said. "We had such a rough August, we're just trying to win as many ballgames as we can and finish strong. The last thing on our mind is being spoilers."

It wasn't the last thing on the Tigers' mind, but it didn't help.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Tigers' struggles against Indians continue

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 9/5/2012 12:57 AM ET

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DETROIT -- If you disconnected from the outside world for the summer and wanted the abbreviated version of the Tigers' season, this has been your week.

They came home last weekend needing wins over the White Sox to stay close in the American League Central race, having just been swept by the third-place Royals. They came into Labor Day tied atop the division, having converted big chances to sweep Chicago again, and looked destined to pull away.

After back-to-back one-run losses to the fourth-place Indians, the latest a 3-2 loss Tuesday night at Comerica Park, they're down again, albeit by just a game thanks to a Twins rout of the White Sox. But the way the last two games have gone -- the way most of the summer has gone -- Detroit needs to worry about Cleveland, not Chicago.

"You tip your hat to them," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "They've been a little mystery for us this year."

When the Tigers ran away with the division race last year, the Indians played no little role, losing 10 consecutive matchups against Detroit from mid-August on.

The Tigers could win each of their final four matchups with the Tribe and still settle for a split of the season series. It would sure help their chances with the White Sox, though.

The Tigers are the only team in the AL Central currently with a winning record against division foes, but the way they've done it is fascinating. They're 10-4 against the White Sox and 19-18 against the other three teams. They're 5-9 against the Indians despite outscoring them in their games.

They scored 16 runs in their three-game sweep of the White Sox. They scored one run over their previous two games in Kansas City going into that set, and they've lost back-to-back 3-2 decisions since. They haven't led the Indians at any point in this series.

Indians manager Manny Acta couldn't explain it, either. His team had lost 18 of 19 road games coming in.

"You can't pick and choose who you play well against," Acta said. "We want to play well against everybody. It happened that we have gotten good pitching when we played them and have played them well."

Indians starter Justin Masterson was thinking the same thing.

"It's crazy this year," said Masterson, who followed up Corey Kluber's Labor Day win with six innings of two-run ball. "For some reason, some way, we seem to play a little bit better against Detroit. I think the guys feel it."

The last time Masterson faced the Tigers, he took a seven-run, 10-hit thumping over four innings. Yet when he faced them in Cleveland in May, he tossed seven innings of one-run ball and took a 2-1 victory.

"We've seen two different kinds of Mastersons this year," Alex Avila said. "The guy we saw the last start, when they were here last time, they were able to get a hold of, and the guy with No. 1, no-hit kind of stuff today. The fact that we had a chance today, I think most of us felt pretty good about it, because he was just flat-out nasty. Anywhere from 90 to 98 with the same fastball, heavy, slider, he had everything going today."

Leyland stopped short of calling it frustrating.

"It's not frustration," he said. "It's the real world. You've got to win games if you want to get to the postseason."

His hard-luck starting pitcher, on the other hand, was frustrated.

"Yeah, it's frustrating," Rick Porcello said. "I mean, this is a team that we definitely should beat. Obviously, we came up short both days. At this time of year, we need to win games, at least win series against division opponents. We know we're better than them. We have to go out and beat them."

Porcello (9-11) gave up three runs over his first three innings, giving up five hits in a nine-batter stretch of the second and third, before settling in. He left with two outs in the sixth before the Tigers' bullpen held them there, but a dearth of run support again doomed him to his fifth consecutive loss.

The Tigers haven't scored a run with Porcello in the game since Aug. 12 at Texas, the first loss in his streak. His last four losses have been by 2-1 or 3-2 scores.

Porcello was done by the time Miguel Cabrera's 34th home run of the year scored Andy Dirks and made it a one-run game in the bottom of the sixth. Avila's third-inning double and singles from Prince Fielder and Don Kelly comprised the rest of the damage.

"It's funny, because you have to beat good pitchers, obviously, and tonight he was a really good pitcher," Leyland said. "But up here at this level, you've still got to beat good pitchers, and we will. We didn't do it tonight, but that's the way it goes."

Not until the seventh inning did the Tigers put multiple runners on base, and that came on a two-out rally with a Jack Hannahan error and a Joe Smith pitch off Avila's left leg. Smith recovered to retire Omar Infante and end the threat.

Once Chris Perez pitched the ninth for his 34th save, the Indians clinched their first road series victory since taking three out of four in Baltimore two months ago, and their first series win anywhere since they took two of three from the Tigers in late July in Cleveland. The Tigers had just swept the White Sox before that series, too.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Early offense all Fister needs to down Tribe

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 9/6/2012 12:05 AM ET

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DETROIT -- If the Tigers keep pitching this well, they'll take their chances. For the first time this series, their chances paid off.

For 25 innings, Indians pitching held the Tigers to six runs, exactly two a game, which explains how they won the first two games and had a fighting chance at a series sweep. Not until a five-run seventh inning could they legitimately relax at salvaging a game from Cleveland with a 7-1 win Wednesday night at Comerica Park that kept them a game behind the White Sox in the American League Central.

It was the big inning they've been lacking for most of the season, and it nearly matched their entire output for the rest of a three-game set in which Cleveland pitchers put the Tigers' offense to sleep. As wildly inconsistent as that was, their pitching gave them a chance for the entire homestand.

If the Tigers are going to win this division race down the stretch, manager Jim Leyland figures, their pitching beyond dueling aces Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer is going to be the basis for giving them a chance.

"You've got two guys at the top, and certainly [Doug] Fister's an excellent pitcher," Leyland said. "If you get a little better than average performance from those [other] two guys, that's pretty good.

"Our pitching is going to be the thing that'll hang us in there -- not that we can't hit, because we can. But at the end of the day, you have to stop the other team and give yourself a chance to win. I'm a firm believer in that. Normally on our team, if you've got a nine-inning game and you only give up three runs, I think on our team we're supposed to win that game."

Normally, they should. For two days, they didn't. The way they're pitching, they'll take their chances.

Take away Fister's wild return to the rotation in last Friday's opener against the White Sox -- and Fister did as much as he could Wednesday to make that a distant memory -- and the Tigers held Chicago and Cleveland to 10 runs over this turn through the rotation. Their starters combined for five runs, seven earned, over 34 2/3 innings -- just under seven innings a start -- with eight walks and 30 strikeouts.

The dueling eight-inning gems over the weekend from Scherzer and Verlander were big-game, dominant performances that left A.J. Pierzynski joking they could've shut down the 1927 Yankees. Quieting an Indians lineup missing so many key parts isn't nearly the same task.

It's still a sign of progress for a back-half rotation that at times has been its own biggest challenge.

Fister, whose return from a groin injury last Friday featured a season high of four walks over five innings, recaptured something like his usual command Wednesday. His lone walk was a sixth-inning pass to Asdrubal Cabrera, whom Prince Fielder promptly erased with a deft grab and throw to start an inning-ending double play off the bat of Carlos Santana.

Fister had a few other three-ball counts mixed in, including a 3-0 count to Cord Phelps with two on and two out in the fourth while nursing a 2-1 lead, but recovered each time. In Phelps' case, Fister threw three consecutive fastballs -- the first two fouled off to run the count full, the last spotted on the inside corner for a called third strike.

"I feel like we're definitely making some strides," Fister said. "There's still some fine-tuning that we need to get done."

The way Fister pitched, the difference for most of the game came down to the small decision of a hit-and-run play from Leyland once Austin Jackson led off the opening inning with a bloop single. It's a tool Leyland will use on occasion to spark a hitter to make contact as much as to advance a runner. In this case, it saved them from what would've been a sure double play once Andy Dirks grounded to second.

"I wanted to push a little bit," Leyland said. "We almost caught a bad break. If it had been hit just a little harder, they would've turned the double play, but Jackson made it. I thought Dirks did a terrific job."

That left a runner on when Miguel Cabrera belted his 35th home run of the year. It was Cabrera's second two-run homer in as many nights, and it gave the Tigers their first lead of the series.

Jimenez cruised from there, allowing just two singles until Dirks' one-out triple in the eighth scored Jackson again and set him up to score on a Cabrera fly to right off Cody Allen. Fielder followed with a drive off the top of the bullpen dugout in left for his first home run since Aug. 26.

Jimenez, who hadn't seen the end of the sixth inning since Aug. 9, lasted 7 1/3 innings for the first time since July 2, yet fell to 0-4 in his last five starts.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

After Scherzer dominates, bottom falls out in 9th

By Alex Angert / MLB.com | 9/8/2012 2:16 AM ET

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ANAHEIM -- Justin Verlander couldn't help but notice the Tigers' opportunity to move into a first-place tie in the division after the White Sox lost earlier in the evening. Did the rest of the team?

"Of course," said the righty, who gets the start Saturday.

That is except for one man and he was on the mound Friday for the Tigers. Max Scherzer said he had no idea as he went on to throw eight dazzling innings of two-run ball, which in the end wasn't enough, with the Tigers losing, 3-2, in the bottom of the ninth on a walk-off single by pinch-hitter Alberto Callaspo.

The righty struck out nine Angels courtesy of a high-90s fastball that registered a career-high 101 mph -- in the eighth inning -- but the streaking Angels rallied with Scherzer out of the game to pull out the win.

Octavio Dotel came in to relieve Scherzer and he allowed three singles, including Callaspo's that scored pinch-runner Peter Bourjos. Prince Fielder hit his 25th homer and Alex Avila hit his eighth.

The Tigers fell even further back in the Wild Card race, now 3 1/2 games behind the second Wild Card team, the Orioles, and now sit 1 1/2 games behind the Angels, who have won nine of their last 10. Detroit remains one game back of Chicago in the AL Central division with a four-game series coming up next week.

"We're in the AL. You could look around the whole league and make a case for everybody," Scherzer said. "The Angels are no different. Don't get me wrong, that's a great ballclub over there with what they can do with so many facets of the game -- pitching, baserunning and obviously the middle of the lineup. Obviously, they are going to be a contender all the way until the end.

"We know how much time we have in this clubhouse," he added.

On Friday, the offense didn't back up the righty's great performance. Scherzer came into the game with five wins in his last five starts while allowing just four earned runs in 35 innings with 44 strikeouts, with one of those wins against the Angels last month in Detroit.

He even hit triple digits on the radar gun for the first time in his career and the fact that it came in the eighth inning when he was well over 100 pitches made it even more impressive. But manager Jim Leyland didn't even consider bringing the hurler back out in the ninth despite the fact that his velocity wasn't decreasing one bit, even after 110 pitches.

"There was no way I would send him back out there in the ninth," Leyland said. "That was a no-brainer."

But with Scherzer out of the game and Dotel in, things began to unravel for the Tigers thanks to some bad luck and good bounces for the Angels. With one out, Kendrys Morales laced a single to center off Dotel (5-3) and Erick Aybar hit a nubber to third with Miguel Cabrera playing back for an infield single, moving pinch-runner Peter Bourjos to second. The next batter, Callaspo, singled into left.

The most frustrating part for Leyland was actually the top half of that inning, when Delmon Young led off with a single and pinch-runner Quintin Berry stole second. Ernesto Frieri (4-0) got the next three batters out to escape the jam.

"We caught a break on the steal, didn't take advantage of it," Leyland said. "They got a little nubber in the infield in the last inning to keep the inning going and they did take advantage of it. Simple as it is."

Scherzer was shaky out of the gates and let the Angels jump out to an early lead with three hits and two runs in the first. Mike Trout, whom the Tigers held to just an infield single in three games two weeks ago, led off with a double to center.

He scored on a single by Torii Hunter up the middle one batter later and the Angels picked up another run in the inning on a Howie Kendrick groundout that scored Albert Pujols.

However, Scherzer settled down and the Tigers answered right back with a pair of homers in the second and third coming off the bats of Fielder and Avila to tie the game.

"That guy is nasty," said Ervin Santana, who started in place of Jered Weaver and struck out 10 in 6 2/3 innings. "He is very nasty and we were able to get a few runs against him, which was great. He has tremendous stuff and had great location tonight."

Alex Angert is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Tigers can't get big hit, are swept by Halos

By Alex Angert / MLB.com | 9/9/2012 1:14 AM ET

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ANAHEIM -- It took the Angels until the eighth inning to get a hit off Justin Verlander the last time the righty faced off against them back in 2011.

On Saturday, all it took was three pitches when rookie Mike Trout took him deep for the first of four first-inning runs en route to a 6-1 Tigers defeat.

"It was a little bit of a letdown right in the first there with the four spot, but that is something we can't really let happen," manager Jim Leyland said. "I don't mean we didn't battle the rest of the way; we did. It took a little air out of our sail."

On both ends, it was a frustrating night for the Tigers, who managed only four hits and played half the game without slugger Miguel Cabrera, who was ejected in the fourth inning for arguing balls and strikes.

But while the offense didn't do much, the story of the night was another rocky start by Verlander.

In the righty's last four outings, he has now looked both dominant and vulnerable. Verlander coughed up eight runs on 12 hits in 5 2/3 innings on Aug. 28 against the Royals and he gave up 10 hits and six runs Saturday. For what it's worth, he threw a two-run complete game on Aug. 23 vs. the Blue Jays and eight innings of one-run ball in his last outing against the rival White Sox.

"You're not going to go out there and be perfect every time," he said. "Those guys get paid a lot of money, too, to hit good pitches."

Prior to Saturday, Verlander had thrown 100 pitches in 80 straight starts dating back to 2010. However, that streak ended Saturday with him being lifted after a tough six innings and 97 pitches.

He'll get his next shot on the mound on Thursday in a marquee matchup against Chris Sale and the White Sox, who are now two games ahead of the Tigers in the division after winning earlier in the day.

"It's pretty simple, he just wasn't good tonight," Leyland said. "That happens. That is part of the equation."

Verlander couldn't help but agree.

"It wasn't pretty," he said with a laugh. "They got to me early. First batter of the game I made a mistake right down the middle to a guy who is having a fantastic year."

Following Trout's homer, Verlander surrendered three more runs thanks to a trio of doubles from Kendrys Morales, Howie Kendrick and Vernon Wells that followed a walk to Albert Pujols.

Verlander was tagged again for another run in the third when he gave up back-to-back doubles to Pujols and Morales.

The Tigers got on the board in the fourth when Austin Jackson, who reached on an error, scored on an Omar Infante base hit, which was his second of the game and 1,000th of his career. However, the Angels answered back with an RBI single by Pujols later in the inning that scored Trout, who walked with two outs.

As for what the Angels did to attack early, manager Mike Scioscia didn't have an exact answer.

"I don't know if there's a key," he said. "You're trying to get to him every inning. Whether he's trying to work his way into his game, as the game goes on, you see him working his way into his stuff and his velocity. He's one guy. If he gets it going and he starts to smell a win, he's very, very tough to beat. So, early runs against him are important."

While Verlander struggled for six innings, Angels lefty C.J. Wilson tossed 7 2/3 innings and gave up just four hits. The one run scored by the Tigers was unearned.

Fittingly enough, the game ended like it started with a deep ball about to leave the park for a solo homer. Only this time, it was Trout making a play with his glove instead of his bat when he stole a home run from Prince Fielder.

Trout wasn't the only one as Wells ran down a couple of tough balls in left and Torii Hunter threw out Infante in the first from right.

"Their outfield defense is probably the best in baseball," Verlander said. "It saves those guys a lot of runs and you saw it again tonight. A lot of balls that were in the gap and fall in against most teams were outs tonight in some big situations. That is part of their team and what they do."

Alex Angert is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Tigers can't get big hit, are swept by Halos

By Alex Angert / MLB.com | 9/9/2012 7:47 PM ET

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ANAHEIM -- Sunday's game began and ended just like Saturday's for Detroit, with a Mike Trout leadoff homer and a Tigers loss.

While the rest of the game may have played out differently than the night before, the Angels used another first-inning blast by Trout and another lackluster offensive showing by the Tigers to win, 3-2, for the series sweep at Angel Stadium.

The Tigers led off both the eighth and ninth innings with a walk, but came away with nothing to show for it as the Angels' bullpen regrouped both times.

After being swept, the Tigers remain two games in back of the White Sox, who lost in extra innings on Sunday, in the American League Central. The two teams square off in a four-game series that starts Monday, and Detroit comes in having lost five of six after sweeping Chicago just a week ago.

"You've got to put this one behind you, and we've got to get ready for the White Sox tomorrow," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "We can't do anything about this one. But certainly we had two of the games where we had our shot, and that's what happens when you don't get a big hit."

Following Trout's leadoff shot, the Angels added another two runs in the second on a homer by Alberto Callaspo, who had delivered a walk-off hit on Friday.

Anibal Sanchez took the loss despite throwing seven solid innings, which included the two homers by the Halos. He struck out six and shut out the Angels the rest of his outing after Callaspo's second-inning homer.

"I thought that was the best Sanchez had been," Leyland said. "I thought he threw the ball better today than I've seen him throw it ever since he's been here. But it was the same old story. We had a couple little shots there, but we just couldn't get the big hit. That pretty much sums it up."

Much like the first two nights, the Angels' fielding kept the Tigers from breaking out a big inning.

"I don't think I've ever remembered seeing an outfield defense play better than this one did in this series in all my years," Leyland said. "We couldn't get one to drop."

A solo home run by Andy Dirks gave the Tigers their first run of the game in the fourth, but the offense didn't show much pop otherwise.

Detroit picked up another run on an RBI double by Brennan Boesch that scored Delmon Young in the seventh.

The Tigers had a chance late but couldn't plate a runner from second base after Alex Avila led off the eighth inning with a walk and pinch-runner Quintin Berry moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Omar Infante. However, Peter Bourjos ran down a fly ball by Austin Jackson in center, and Ernesto Frieri came in to strike out Dirks and end the threat.

Miguel Cabrera drew a walk to lead off the ninth, but Frieri buckled down and closed out the game.

"We lost three ball games, but we centered some balls pretty good this series. We hit some balls pretty good to the gaps, and everywhere we hit it they were there, to their credit," Leyland said. "It wasn't like our bats were anemic. I thought we actually swung the bats pretty good. We didn't have much to show for it because they made every possible play they could."

Zack Greinke struck out seven over seven innings and allowed just the two runs on five hits to round off a weekend of great starting pitching for the Angels.

Cabrera and Prince Fielder combined to go 3-for-18 in the series. Cabrera entered the series as Trout's biggest competitor for the AL MVP award, but it was the 21-year-old who stepped up this series, and not the seven-time All-Star.

"We pitched well all series," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "And that offense over there is more than Miguel Cabrera. He's obviously a huge part of it, but they've got some guys that can run, they have, obviously, Prince Fielder behind him. We did a great job on the mound against a good offensive club."

"We've got move on," said center fielder Jackson, who robbed Mark Trumbo of a two-run homer in the second. "We're definitely a little frustrated, but at the same time we are looking forward to playing better baseball over in Chicago."

Alex Angert is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Errors, home runs derail Porcello, Tigers
Infante's miscue precedes back-to-back home runs; defict at three

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 9/11/2012 1:37 AM ET

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CHICAGO -- Rick Porcello went four weeks without the Tigers scoring a run while he was pitching. On the night his offense finally got him a run of support -- and only one run -- his defense then let him down.

"He was pitching really, really well," manager Jim Leyland said. "We just didn't play a very good game."

He didn't mean specifically on defense. After all, with or without three errors and another ground ball that got through, they still only scored one run off a rookie left-hander who had given up 12 runs in his previous two starts and was precariously close to another early-inning exit Monday night at U.S. Cellular Field.

The total package might well be a microcosm of the frustrations of the Tigers' season. And after a 6-1 loss to the American League Central-leading White Sox dropped Detroit to three games back in the division race, it's a season that's running out of time for the Tigers to make a move.

That time might have to be the rest of this four-game series, in which Detroit will send its top three starters to the mound -- Doug Fister goes Tuesday, followed by co-aces Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander.

"It's not slipping away at all," catcher Gerald Laird said. "We've got three more games. We've got three good guys on the mound. We've played very well against these guys. Tonight, we didn't play a very good, solid game. That's the bottom line.

"We gave them extra outs. Not to take anything away from them. They made some good swings. But when you give teams multiple outs in an inning, they're going to hurt you. Ricky made some pitches, but that one inning, we got guys to the plate that maybe shouldn't have gotten up to the plate that inning and they hurt us."

With Porcello riding a year of success against Chicago into Monday's opener, the combination of extra outs and missed chances might have cost them a game that was there to take.

They never quite grabbed it, much like two critical ground balls in the sixth. Thus, Monday marked the Tigers' sixth loss in seven games since they swept the White Sox in Detroit over Labor Day weekend to tie up the standings. In all of those losses, they've scored two runs or less. As a result, they're back to the same gap they faced going into that series.

"It's tough. Everyone's busting their tail," Laird continued. "I mean, I'm not blaming anybody. We're 25 guys. It's all of us. You play as a team. You go down as a team."

Still, he admitted, "It seems like when other teams are getting opportunities, they're taking advantage of them."

Take your pick which facet cost them more. Had the Tigers turned their four consecutive second-inning hits into more than one run, or had Miguel Cabrera not hit into a double play with two on and none out in the third inning, Porcello would've had more breathing room. Had Prince Fielder come up with a big drive in the eighth as the potential tying run in a 4-1 game, Porcello might have been off the hook.

That was the aspect that seemed to linger with Leyland in the moments after the game, given the way Jose Quintana recovered to pitch 7 2/3 innings of one-run ball.

"We hadn't seen him before, and we had him on the ropes a little bit early," Leyland said, "but we didn't get the knockout punch, which has been a little bit of a problem for us, obviously. ... He settled down. It looked like he got determined. He got a little more confidence as the game went on."

Quintana admitted as much later.

"After that, pretty much, it just gives you a little bit more confidence," Quintana said through an interpreter. "So once you have that confidence, it just kind of takes you on from there."

The Tigers, who were 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position in their three-game sweep to the Angels over the weekend, went 1-for-7 in those situations Monday. The White Sox were technically worse, going 2-for-16. Their two hits, however, left the park.

They were 0-for-10 through five innings against Porcello, whose called-third strike on Paul Konerko with a runner on second in the opening inning seemed to set his tone. He retired 13 of 15 batters before the rally, stranding Dewayne Wise on second base in the fourth inning after Ryan Raburn's errant drop in left field and Gordon Beckham on second the next inning after his leadoff double.

He couldn't hold down Rios after back-to-back ground balls turned against him in the sixth.

Omar Infante cleanly fielded Wise's grounder to the right side, but lost his grip as he exchanged it to his throwing hand, his sixth error at second base since joining the Tigers from Miami in late July. Porcello got an 0-2 count and a ground ball from Konerko, but it was far enough in the hole that Jhonny Peralta couldn't stop it from rolling into left field. He was playing for the double play.

Earlier in the day, pitching Jeff Jones had complemented Porcello for keeping his cool in big situations, but he still made a mound visit to buy Porcello time to catch his breath and figure out how he wanted to attack Rios.

"If you're going to get beat, you want to get beat with your best stuff, Porcello said. "In that situation, I've got one out, I've got runners at first and second. I'm looking for a ground ball, and the pitch I'm going to get a ground ball with is my sinker. I just left it up. It was up and in and he turned it around."

It was Rios' 23rd home run this year. Two pitches later, Pierzynski took Porcello deep to center for his 26th home run. Gordon Beckham added a two-run homer off Octavio Dotel in the eighth.

Wise accounted for Porcello's ninth unearned run this season, two more than he had in any of his previous three big league campaigns. If Porcello gets the double play from Rios, the infield defense doesn't hurt him. Then again, without those two plays, those home runs count for two runs, not four.

Either way, it's a bad combination.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Tigers trim deficit to two behind Fister, HRs
Right-hander allows two hits over seven; Jackson, Cabrera homer

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 9/12/2012 1:46 AM ET

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CHICAGO -- The Tigers awakened from their September slumber on Tuesday, just in time to even their four-game division clash with the White Sox. It wasn't an outburst, but after eight losses scoring two runs or fewer, they'll take it.

The way they continue to pitch, even when their top two pitchers aren't on the mound, they don't need much.

"It's good to kind of get the ball rolling a little bit," said Austin Jackson, whose two-run homer provided the turn in Tuesday's 5-3 win. "We definitely haven't been playing the way we're capable of playing. But at the same time, we've been playing some good teams, too.

"We're right in the ballgames. We just haven't been able to get that big hit when we needed it. They're starting to fall a little bit."

The pitching staff has been keeping the Tigers in games, and unless an unexpected slugfest happens over the final two games of the series, it will have to lead the way again if the Tigers are going to retake the momentum in the AL Central.

Tuesday's win ended a four-game losing streak and brought the Tigers back to within two games of the White Sox. With Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander starting the next two games, Detroit has a chance to head out of town Thursday night with a dead-even race and 19 games to go.

"Anytime you win a game, it's obviously huge, particularly this time of year," manager Jim Leyland said. "But I'll say the same thing I've always said: Momentum is tomorrow's starting pitchers. Whoever pitches the best probably will win the game."

The Tigers didn't get many hits to fall, and they still stranded the bases loaded in the seventh and eighth innings with a chance to put the game away, but they got enough.

For four innings, those fly balls were falling into gloves in the outfield and, in at least a few cases, on the warning track as they tried to solve Jake Peavy. When Alejandro De Aza ran down and snow-coned Jhonny Peralta's ball on the track in right-center field, the Tigers had one run to show for their first 13 innings in the series.

Yet they were close enough that after Omar Infante singled with one out in the fifth and Jackson sent a 1-0 pitch deep to left-center, they had a tie game. When Miguel Cabrera homered two batters later, they had a lead.

They also had their rallying point.

"I think it relaxed everybody when we got on the board a little bit," Leyland said. "We got that three-spot. The way Dougie was pitching, he had some quick innings obviously, and that's always good tonic for your team when you get out there and get right back in."

Fister had given up a couple of home runs of his own, both solo shots from Dewayne Wise in the opening inning and Gordon Beckham in the third. He nearly gave up a third when De Aza flew out to the warning track in right field three pitches later, and then a four-pitch walk to Kevin Youkilis gave Chicago a runner for the middle of its order.

That was it. Fister set down the next 14 batters, including two strikeouts on Wise and two groundouts from the previously hot Alex Rios.

"You give up homers, you don't mind doing that," Peavy said, "but they have to be solos like Fister [gave up]."

Fister (9-8) became just the third Tigers pitcher in recent history to pitch at least seven innings with two solo homers accounting for his only runs and hits. Scherzer did it two Septembers ago, also against the White Sox. Jeff Robinson did it in 1990.

Fister hadn't, mainly because he rarely allows multiple home runs in a game. But the shutdown stretch was reminiscent of the way Fister pitched last year down the stretch. He has shown flashes of it, notably in July and into early August before a tough stretch of starts and a groin strain.

He now has back-to-back seven-inning performances with no more than two runs. If the Tigers can get him going alongside Scherzer and Verlander, arguably their co-aces, they don't need their offense to erupt to win. They need a few timely hits to win, even if they miss on other chances.

They'd been held to two runs or fewer six times in their previous seven games, and it's clearly a trend that will sink them if it resumes. In that same stretch, though, they held opponents to three runs or fewer five times.

"I'm trying to make the adjustments that are needed," Fister said, "but it's definitely a step in the right direction. I don't want to say I'm in midseason form, but I'm still trying to make as many adjustments as possible."

So is the offense.

"Knock on wood, we've been pitching pretty good for a while. Tonight, we did muster a few runs," Leyland said. "It wasn't like we tore the cover off the ball, but we did pretty good. We got enough, but our pitching has been pretty darn good."

Setup man Joaquin Benoit gave up three straight singles in the eighth to plate a run and put the tying run on base with nobody out and the middle of the order due up. From there, he recovered to rack up three-pitch strikeouts of Youkilis and Wise before inducing an inning-ending groundout from Paul Konerko. Jose Valverde worked the ninth for his 29th save.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Tigers one win from tying Central after topping Sox

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 9/13/2012 1:51 AM ET

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DETROIT -- Stop me if you're heard this one: Justin Verlander and Chris Sale will walk onto a mound with the American League Central race in the balance, as the Tigers are just one game behind the White Sox.

If that sounds familiar, so should this: The Tigers' offense has seemingly awakened from its uncharacteristic slumber.

With one crushing swing from Prince Fielder for a three-run homer in the seventh inning on Wednesday, Detroit turned what had been another pitching duel into what looked like a runaway lead. They ended up needing all of those runs and two more to hold off a late White Sox rally for an 8-6 win, turning Thursday's Verlander-Sale rematch from a week and a half ago into another pendulum moment for the division race.

Verlander will try to continue the dominant run of starting pitching the Tigers have received this series, including six innings of one-run ball with seven strikeouts from Max Scherzer (16-6) on Wednesday. Not until Wednesday, however, did they finally add the offensive outburst to go with it.

Hours earlier, team president/general manager Dave Dombrowski used the terms "very inconsistent," "bewildering" and "streaky" to describe his club's offense. But he also used some comparisons from his previous front-office stops to describe what can happen to bewilderingly inconsistent offensive clubs.

"I've been with very good hitting clubs that have gone through stretches in which they haven't swung the bats very well, and all of a sudden, they come busting out," Dombrowski said. "I've been with some clubs in Montreal and Florida -- and I'm talking clubs with some Hall of Fame hitters on them -- and they're not scoring runs for a lengthy period and all of a sudden, boom, here they come. And that's what's so interesting about the game, because all of a sudden, you just never know when.

"It may be tonight. It might have been last night that starts it. It might not be. I don't know. You just don't know. But I know we're a better offensive club."

The Tigers looked helpless for four innings against Jake Peavy on Tuesday before two fifth-inning homers lifted a weight off them. Their game turned with a three-run fifth on Wednesday after four outstanding innings from Gavin Floyd, who fanned half of the first 14 hitters he faced in his first start back from the disabled list. This time their game turned on small ball.

Detroit had fallen behind, 1-0, when Kevin Youkilis turned on a Scherzer slider in the fourth. Once Brennan Boesch, previously 0-for-18 off Floyd, led off with a single and advanced on Jhonny Peralta's walk, manager Jim Leyland made the decision to try to manufacture something out of it from a bottom third of the lineup that has done little.

"I don't want a double play or a strikeout," Leyland said. "I'm trying to come out of that inning with something to get us on the board to at least tie the game. I felt that was important."

Alex Avila, 2-for-19 off Floyd at that point, laid down a slow bunt toward third that left Youkilis with no option but to throw to first base. Omar Infante hit the next pitch to short, allowing Boesch to score and Peralta to take third.

It wasn't a big inning, but it was production from an unproductive segment of the lineup, and it reset the order with a runner still on. Austin Jackson's ensuing single put Detroit in front and chased Floyd from the game. Andy Dirks' two-out walk extended the inning for another RBI single from Miguel Cabrera.

The White Sox have a deep bullpen, but not necessarily one conducive to eating innings. To knock out Floyd before the end of the fifth made a difference in the seventh, Hector Santiago's third inning of work.

With the game still manageable at 3-1, White Sox manager Robin Ventura went to the matchup portion of his relief corps for the middle of the Tigers' order, a tactic that had worked the first two games. But Brian Omogrosso couldn't retire Cabrera, giving up a two-out single to bring up Fielder.

Ventura had used Donnie Veal, who has yet to allow a base hit to a lefty this season, to retire Fielder the last two nights. On Wednesday he went to fellow southpaw Leyson Septimo to do the same.

"One of the biggest things about September baseball," Leyland said before the game, "is that a left-handed hitter had better be able to get a hit off a left-handed pitcher, and a right-handed hitter off a right-handed pitcher."

Once Septimo fell behind, 3-1, Fielder got his hit, ending an 0-for-18 slump. Septimo decided not to walk him with first base open, and instead challenged him, and Fielder made him pay with a drive to right for his 26th home run of the year.

"It's not something that I'm not used to," Fielder said. "They've been bringing a lefty in since I've been playing. It's part of the game."

By then Scherzer had taken Detroit's two-run lead and carried it into the late innings. It wasn't his usual high-strikeout effort; he fanned five his first turn through the lineup before striking out just two more from there. However, he didn't issue any free passes, going without a walk for his second straight outing despite a handful of full counts.

Two more runs in the eighth gave the Tigers their largest run total since Aug. 28. Youkilis' second homer of the night, this time a three-run shot, brought the White Sox back before Jose Valverde worked the ninth for his 30th save.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Tigers-White Sox finale postponed, set for Monday

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 09/13/12 9:57 PM ET


CHICAGO -- Justin Verlander is 12-1 against the White Sox over the last four seasons, but he cannot beat Mother Nature, no matter how many times he tries.

A storm system that had been expected to pass through Chicago before Thursday night's scheduled showdown between the Tigers and White Sox instead crept in just before the first pitch, postponing the finale of the four-game series at U.S. Cellular Field.

The rainout sets up one final tilt between the American League Central contenders on Monday afternoon at 2:10 p.m. ET. Doug Fister, who beat the White Sox on Tuesday, will make the start opposite Gavin Floyd, who took the loss on Wednesday. The game will be televised in Michigan and Northwest Ohio on Fox Sports Detroit.

Instead of facing the White Sox, Verlander has been pushed back to Friday's series opener in Cleveland, opposite Corey Kluber. Anibal Sanchez and Rick Porcello will face the Indians on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, respectively.

For Verlander it'll be a rematch of his game in Cleveland in July, when the Indians scored four runs in the seventh to turn his gem into a Tigers loss in the rubber match of a three-game series.

That loss knocked the Tigers out of a first-place tie atop the AL Central and started them on a skid of five losses in six games. Detroit has held a share of first place for only one day since then, and that came after Verlander beat Chris Sale on Sept. 2 at Comerica Park.

Since this series was supposed to be the Tigers' final trip to Chicago this season, Major League Baseball, not the White Sox, was in charge of making the call on Thursday. Though it wasn't actually raining at the originally scheduled first-pitch time of 8:10 p.m. ET, the line of storms was close enough that they waited it out rather than risk losing Verlander and Sale after one or two innings.

As it turned out, the rain was steady enough that they couldn't have played through it without some serious problems to the infield and mound. Detroit went through those problems in Boston on July 31, and it left them with a rain-shortened loss once umpires called for the tarp with the Tigers rallying.

So for now the Tigers remain a game behind the White Sox in the standings, and they'll have to find a way to beat Floyd again.

"I thought Floyd [on Wednesday] night, for the first three innings, was the best I ever saw him," manager Jim Leyland said on Thursday afternoon. "Oh, man, he was nasty. For the first three innings, I thought, 'Oh my God."

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.