2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS

Villarreal's wildness sends Tigers to fifth straight loss

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 4/27/2012 11:00 PM ET

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NEW YORK -- The Tigers finally awakened from their offensive slumber with their best output off a starting pitcher in nearly three weeks. It still didn't put them on top when the game came down to the last at-bat.

Though Austin Jackson's four-hit night paced an 11-hit assault on Yankees starter Ivan Nova, Mark Teixeira's game-tying sacrifice fly off Joaquin Benoit in the eighth set up a hitless rally off Brayan Villarreal in the ninth to continue Detroit's April skid with a 7-6 loss Friday night at Yankee Stadium.

Not only did the Yankees produce the deciding run without a base hit, they put only one ball in play over four batters to face Villarreal, who walked Derek Jeter and Curtis Granderson with one out. Jeter advanced to third on ball four to Granderson once the pitch skipped in the dirt and rolled to the edge of the Yankees' dugout.

With the sacrifice fly in play for Alex Rodriguez, Villarreal (0-1) missed the strike zone on three straight fastballs, the last of which got past Alex Avila and rolled to the backstop for a walk-off passed ball.

The Tigers' fifth straight defeat, and seventh in their last eight games, dropped them to .500 for the first time this year. They also fell a game off Cleveland's pace in the American League Central.

Justin Verlander's 16 wins after a Tigers loss last year not only made him a streak stopper, it made him the most successful pitcher in those situations since Steve Carlton posted 19 wins after Phillies losses in 1972. Verlander already had one such win this season, having captured Detroit's most recent victory last Saturday.

Verlander wasn't at his best in his six innings Friday, but he was good enough with the run support behind him that he was in line for the win over six innings and five runs -- four earned. The Tigers' six runs off Ivan Nova marked its highest total off a Yankees starter in the Bronx since 2002.

That game 10 years ago saw Detroit produce a lone run off 11 hits against Andy Pettitte and lose in the ninth. The Tigers had plenty more Friday to build a 6-4 lead, but the Yankees produced enough late.

Back-to-back singles leading off the eighth against Benoit set up Teixeira, whose fly ball to center easily scored Rodriguez.

Jackson's four-hit game was his second this season, and his first against the Yankees, the team that drafted him in 2005 and developed him before trading him to the Tigers in the Granderson deal.

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.

Smyly's first win a gem as Tigers hold on

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 4/28/2012 6:59 PM ET

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NEW YORK -- The Tigers were in desperate need of a stopper to help them end their five-game losing streak. As unexpected as Andy Dirks was to be one, Drew Smyly was a real surprise.

But then, Smyly's whole season so far has been one of baseball's best first impressions. Thanks to six-plus innings of two-hit, one-run ball at Yankee Stadium, he finally has his first Major League win to show for a month of standout pitching, helping lead the Tigers to a 7-5 win Saturday afternoon.

Smyly already had built some impressive early numbers, allowing one run in each of his first three starts -- all of them no-decisions. Saturday was different, a meeting with the Bronx Bombers in one of the toughest places for a pitcher to perform.

Even Smyly acknowledged leading into the start that he'd be pitching on a special stage.

"Just a little more adrenaline, probably a little bigger rush being able to pitch in New York City against the Yankees," Smyly said Friday. "It's just fun."

Smyly handled the adrenaline masterfully, especially after Nick Swisher's solo homer put the Yankees on the scoreboard two batters into his outing. The 22-year-old left-hander didn't allow another hit until Alex Rodriguez's single leading off the seventh on Smyly's 93rd and final pitch.

In between, Smyly retired 17 of 19 Yankees batters with two walks and seven strikeouts. He fanned five Yankees in an eight-batter span from the fourth inning into the sixth, mainly on offspeed pitches that caught Yankees hitters off guard.

According to baseball-reference.com, Smyly is the first pitcher to give up one run or fewer in his first four Major League outings, all of them starts, since Fernando Valenzuela in 1981. He's only the third pitcher to accomplish the feat in the last 50 years.

Instead of Yankees hitters figuring Smyly out, the swings seemed to draw softer contact as the game went on. The two biggest catches of the day came from Dirks, who ran down a Mark Teixeira fly ball in the left-field corner before robbing Swisher of extra bases an inning later.

That wasn't all Dirks did in support of Smyly. His three-run homer put Detroit in front in the top of the first inning, comprising half of the Tigers' six runs off Freddy Garcia.

The six innings were enough to qualify Smyly for the American League ERA lead. His 1.23 mark is a half-run lower than any other qualified AL hurler had entering the day. He'll fall out of qualification early next week, needing as many innings as his team has played games, but he'll have a chance to get it back in his next start next Friday against the White Sox.

Jose Valverde made it interesting in the ninth, allowing three runs, including Swisher's second homer of the game, before finishing off the Yankees.

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 keeps it close, but Tigers fall to Yanks
Righty issues seven walks; Prince ends long homer drought

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 4/29/2012 4:20 PM ET

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DETROIT -- Amazingly, Max Scherzer endured 119 pitches over 4 2/3 innings and still gave the Tigers a chance. Much less surprising, CC Sabathia shut the door on them.

Despite seven walks and seven hits allowed by Scherzer, he and reliever Luke Putkonen stranded Yankees galore on the basepaths to keep the Bronx Bombers from busting open Sunday's series finale. The big hit on the other end, however, never came, allowing Sabathia to last eight solid innings for a 6-2 Tigers loss at Yankee Stadium.

Detroit's sixth loss in its last seven games dropped the Tigers back to .500 heading into a six-game homestand beginning Monday night against the Royals.

Scherzer became the first American League pitcher since Victor Zambrano in 2004 to throw 119 pitches or more without getting through the fifth inning, according to research on baseball-reference.com. Though some of those pitches were close and didn't draw the calls from home-plate umpire Rob Drake, Scherzer also missed his spots on many. Instead of missing over the plate and getting hit, he missed off of it and allowed baserunners.

He left so little over the plate, in fact, that aside from Curtis Granderson's solo home run in the fourth -- a ball that popped out of Austin Jackson's glove as he tried to make a leaping catch over the fence in right-center field -- the Yankees had very little solid contact off Scherzer. Their two previous runs scored in the second on Granderson's bases-loaded walk and Alex Rodriguez's infield bouncer down the third-base line.

Scherzer and Putkonen combined to strand 14 runners, four shy of the maximum possible through six innings, yet the Tigers only trailed by a run. Two seventh-inning runs on a fielder's choice at the plate and a Robinson Cano sacrifice fly helped widen the gap.

The loss closed a wildly turbulent month on the mound for Scherzer (1-3), who came into the season looking to find his midseason form early, but has struggled to find any consistency. He allowed 21 runs on 37 hits over 24 1/3 April innings, with 13 walks and 27 strikeouts.

Prince Fielder's fourth-inning solo homer -- his first home run in 72 at-bats since his two-homer game April 7 -- and Miguel Cabrera's sixth-inning double kept the Tigers close in the middle innings. The problem was that Detroit had precious few other opportunities against Sabathia, who improved to 16-12 for his career against his old AL Central nemesis.

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.

Opener between Tigers, Royals postponed
Game to be made up on Sept. 24, an off-day for both clubs
By Anthony Odoardi / MLB.com | 04/30/12 8:06 PM ET

DETROIT -- Monday night's scheduled game between the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals at Comerica Park has been postponed due to rain. The game will be made up at 7:05 p.m. ET on Monday, Sept. 24, which was an off-day for both clubs.

The pitching matchups for the two games in this series will be Rick Porcello against Luke Hochevar on Tuesday and Justin Verlander against Jonathan Sanchez on Wednesday. Duane Below, who was scheduled to make his first start of the season Monday before the rainout, will be placed back in the bullpen.

After rain fell early Monday morning, it let up for most of the day. However, as the 7:05 p.m. start time approached, a steady stream of rain began to fall, and the radar showed no signs of it letting up by a reasonable hour.

A rain delay lasted for 40 minutes before the Tigers officially announced the postponement. The Royals and Tigers were originally scheduled for a three-game series from Sept. 25-27, but with Monday's rainout, it will now be a four-game set.

All paid tickets and season parking passes from Monday's game will be valid for the date of the makeup and no ticket exchange is necessary.

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

Jackson, Porcello lead way in Tigers' rout

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 5/1/2012 9:34 PM ET

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DETROIT -- The Tigers returned home looking for big hits, wanting a deep start or two and needing an easy win more than anything. They had to wait a night, but their opener against the Royals provided the answer to their troubles.

By the time the Tigers made the first out of the night at the plate, they were on their eighth hitter, having built a five-run lead. Rick Porcello took that lead, brought some mechanical tweaks with him to the mound and took over from there, tossing eight strong innings for a 9-3 win Tuesday night at Comerica Park.

The win pushed Detroit back over the .500 mark after losing eight of the previous 10 games.

The Tigers went homerless on a cool, damp night, but their barrage of singles and doubles provided the support they needed. They put up a dozen hits off Royals starter Luke Hochevar (2-2), who came in with a 6.12 ERA in his previous six appearances at Comerica Park.

Though shaky early defense didn't help Hochevar's cause, the Tigers' parade of line-drive hits didn't allow him a chance to recover. After a scoreless second inning, he missed the strike zone with his first eight pitches of the third, walking back-to-back hitters to set up Austin Jackson's two-run double in a three-run rally that made it an 8-0 game.

Jackson went 4-for-5 on the night, raising his batting average 30 points to .314.

Porcello (2-2) had been roughed up for 13 earned runs on 17 hits over 7 2/3 innings in his previous two starts, but his between-starts work with pitching coach Jeff Jones led to an adjustment to his windup, raising his hands in order to find a better balance. The firmer fastball and sinker that resulted allowed him a steady diet of ground-ball outs.

Porcello retired 12 of his first 13 batters before giving up single runs in the fifth, sixth and eighth innings. He left after tossing eight innings and delivering a quality start, recording 13 ground-ball outs.

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.

Boesch's late heroics aren't enough vs. KC

By Anthony Odoardi / MLB.com | 5/2/2012 4:20 PM ET

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DETROIT -- The Tigers couldn't quite pull off the late come-from-behind victory on Wednesday afternoon.

Behind a two-run home run from Brennan Boesch in the bottom of the eighth, the Tigers rallied from a two-run deficit. However, a Chris Getz infield single off Joaquin Benoit in the top of the ninth gave the Royals a 3-2 win in the series finale at Comerica Park.

Through seven innings, the Tigers had been held to two hits and no runs. Tigers ace Justin Verlander, despite allowing only two runs on six hits with seven strikeouts in eight strong frames, seemed well on his way to a tough-luck loss. The Tigers showed some life in the eighth, as Verlander avoided his first loss since September 2009.

Mike Moustakas hit a one-out double, advanced to third on a ground ball, and scored on the Getz single to take back the lead.

A leadoff walk to Jarrod Dyson to begin the game plagued Verlander. Dyson stole second and scored on an RBI double by Eric Hosmer to give the Royals an early 1-0 lead.

In the top of the sixth, Verlander encountered some control issues. He walked Alex Gordon to start the inning and hit Billy Butler with a pitch. Gordon advanced to third and scored on a fielder's choice as the Royals took a 2-0 lead.

Royals starter Jonathan Sanchez threw only 82 pitches in five innings before handing it over to the bullpen. The left-hander's short outing was effective, as he yielded one hit and two walks.

Detroit finally got to Sanchez in the bottom of the fifth inning. Alex Avila's double -- the Tigers' first hit of the game -- and two walks loaded the bases. Austin Jackson, who tallied four hits on Tuesday, grounded out to shortstop to end the threat.

The Tigers put runners on second and third with a Brad Eldred double in the second, but failed to come up with a timely hit. Royals closer Jonathan Broxton took over in the bottom of the ninth and threw a scoreless inning to pick up the save.

Detroit is now 2-7 in its past nine home games.

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

Peralta's walk-off HR erases Tigers' home struggles
Ninth-inning blast with one out turns around one-run deficit

By Anthony Odoardi / MLB.com | 5/4/2012 10:04 PM ET

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DETROIT -- Jhonny Peralta hit his first home run of the season in dramatic fashion with a walk-off two-run shot on an 0-2 pitch as the Tigers stunned the visiting White Sox, 5-4, on Friday night at Comerica Park.

Alex Avila, who crushed White Sox pitching all night, singled in the at-bat prior to Peralta, who completed the Tigers' third walk-off this season at Comerica Park.

White Sox second baseman Gordon Beckham hit a 2-1 pitch from Octavio Dotel over the left-field fence to give Chicago a 4-2 lead in the top of the seventh inning. The lead seemed like it would hold, until the Tigers put together a late rally.

The Tigers pulled within run one in the bottom of the eighth inning as Miguel Cabrera plated a third run on Jake Peavy's 122nd pitch -- the first time in a White Sox uniform that the former National League Cy Young Award winner reached 120 pitches.

Rookie left-hander Drew Smyly had another solid outing, allowing two runs on seven hits and matching his career high of seven strikeouts for the third time this season. He took his fourth no-decision in five starts.

However, Peavy, the American League Pitcher of the Month of April, pitched another gem. He didn't get a complete game as he had the previous two starts, but outlasted his 22-year-old counterpart.

Peralta's home run off relief pitcher Matt Thornton erased anything Peavy had done. Peralta received four straight fastballs and took the fourth one out of the park.

Avila, who was integral in the win, put together his second straight multihit game. He doubled to right in the bottom of the second inning, moved to third on a single from Peralta and scored on a sacrifice fly by Ryan Raburn to make the score 1-0.

Avila again attacked the opposite field in the bottom of the fourth, but this time he placed the ball on the other side of the fence for his fourth home run.

The Tigers' one-run lead held until the sixth when Alexei Ramirez led off the inning with a triple past a diving Austin Jackson in center field. Adam Dunn hit a sacrifice fly to right field and knotted the game at 2. Beckham's home run two innings later left him a triple short of the cycle, as was Avila.

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

Valverde, Tigers stung by Dunn homer in ninth
Closer surrenders two-run shot for second blown save

By Anthony Odoardi / MLB.com | 5/5/2012 6:47 PM ET

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DETROIT -- Jose Valverde's struggles continued Saturday, as he came in to protect a one-run lead in the ninth and got charged with his second blown save and first loss.

Adam Dunn delivered the blow with a 422-foot two-run bomb to right field as the White Sox got some payback against the Tigers with a 3-2 win.

The home run erased the work Max Scherzer did in the first seven innings. Coming off an outing against the Yankees in which he allowed a career-high seven walks, Scherzer corrected his command issues and didn't issue a single free pass to the White Sox.

The only damage the White Sox could do against the right-hander was a solo home run in the top of the seventh inning off the bat of Paul Konerko. Konerko hit the first pitch over the left-field wall to cut the Tigers' lead to one.

The Tigers scored two early runs off White Sox pitcher Gavin Floyd in the second inning off four hits -- all singles. Andy Dirks drove in Alex Avila with a well-placed ground ball between the shortstop and third baseman. Austin Jackson attacked the same gap two batters later to plate Jhonny Peralta for a 2-0 lead.

Floyd regrouped, yielding only two hits the rest of the way. He pitched seven strong innings, but was outdone by Scherzer.

The Tigers' 27-year-old right-hander struck out nine in seven innings of work, yielding four hits and one run. Scherzer acknowledged watching video of his 6-0 start from 2011 to search for any mechanical issues.

It was easily Scherzer's best start of the season. He was perfect until Dunn singled on a first-pitch changeup with two outs in the fourth. He threw 97 pitches and lowered his ERA from 7.77 to 6.32.

However, Dunn's long ball shocked the Tigers. After going a perfect 49-for-49 in save opportunities last season, Valverde has blown two already and his ERA sits at 6.17.

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

Trio of solo home runs powers Tigers in finale win
Jackson, Fielder and Dirks go deep; Porcello earns third win

By Anthony Odoardi / MLB.com | 5/6/2012 4:20 PM ET

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DETROIT -- Prince Fielder ended his Comerica Park home run drought, Austin Jackson continued his red-hot start and the Tigers overcame a first-inning blast from Adam Dunn to defeat the White Sox, 3-1, in Sunday's series finale.

Rick Porcello picked up his third win as he survived the early damage by Dunn and fired 6 1/3 innings of four-hit, one-run ball.

Dunn's home run was his second in as many at-bats. On a 1-2 pitch, Porcello threw a hanging changeup that the White Sox slugger took just over the gate above the right-field wall to give Chicago a 1-0 lead.

But the Tigers would quickly respond in the bottom of the frame. After striking out in Saturday night's game with the tying and winning runs in scoring position, Jackson homered in his first at-bat Sunday.

It was his fourth home run and the sixth leadoff home run of his career. Jackson's 2-for-4 day at the plate pushed his batting average to .311.

Fielder, who hadn't homered in Comerica Park since April 7, when he hit two against the Red Sox, launched one to right-center in the third inning to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead.

Porcello was pulled with runners on first and second in the top of the seventh inning after 103 pitches. Octavio Dotel, who served up a long ball to Gordon Beckham on Friday, struck the second baseman out and Phil Coke forced a soft line drive from Alejandro De Aza to end the threat.

Andy Dirks added a third solo shot in the eighth inning against White Sox reliever Hector Santiago.

After suffering his first loss and second blown save Saturday, closer Jose Valverde rebounded to throw a scoreless ninth inning for his fifth save. Valverde allowed a hit and a walk and struck out two in closing out the win.

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

Dotel's hiccup costs Tigers in Seattle

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 5/8/2012 3:00 AM ET

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SEATTLE -- If anyone had earned the trust to babysit a ninth-inning lead for the Tigers, it was Octavio Dotel. So it stands to reason that manager Jim Leyland sat in his office with the look of a parent from one of those 1980s teen movies who comes home to find the remnants of a bad house party on his lawn and his car at the bottom of the pool.

Yes, he had the advantage of watching it all unfold. He could've pulled the plug at some point while what had been a shutout in the making unraveled into another loss to the Mariners, this one a 3-2 decision on Monday. But Dotel was the guy they signed to help provide another veteran presence in the bullpen.

Dotel has saved 108 games for eight teams over his 14-year Major League career. He was a full-time closer as recently as two years ago. He pitched 8 2/3 innings of four-hit ball with 10 strikeouts before giving up his first run this year.

He came in Monday and looked like a wild-eyed rookie.

"I was throwing all my pitches well in the bullpen," Dotel said. "Everything was good. Everything just wasn't where I want to be. I came into the game, and I can't find the strike zone."

Debate if you want the value of resting Joaquin Benoit after he pitched the previous two days, though there was no way closer Jose Valverde was going to pitch after three straight appearances and 55 pitches over the weekend. Leyland wasn't going to use either of them under any circumstances.

"I made up my mind I wasn't going to pitch those two big boys down there," Leyland said. "I wasn't going to get greedy."

He played the matchups and used Phil Coke to retire three straight left-handed hitters in the eighth inning. He had Ichiro Suzuki looming in the ninth, but Ichiro was 1-for-10 with five strikeouts lifetime off Dotel.

Under those circumstances, then: If not Dotel, then who?

"When you put it all together, here's a guy who was a big league closer, very effective at one time and obviously pitched in a World Series last year in big pressure situations," Leyland said. "For whatever reason tonight, he didn't throw strikes. That's part of the game. That happens. He wasn't trying to throw balls. He just had a hard time throwing the ball over the plate."

As a result, instead of recording a save for his ninth different club, Dotel has a blown save with eight. And the Tigers, who went 83-0 when leading after eight innings last season, have four losses in those same situations through 28 games this year.

They were 77-0 when leading after seven innings in 2011. They're 10-6 in those situations in 2012. They lost on a walk-off passed ball their last road trip, but that was a rookie reliever with a history of command problems. That had nothing on this.

In fairness, Leyland pointed out, the Tigers had chances to add on runs but couldn't, including a bases-loaded opportunity with two outs in the seventh as former Tigers reliever Charlie Furbush struggled to find the strike zone.

The Tigers went 3-for-8 with runners in scoring position, yet still left seven runners on base. They had a scorched liner up the middle from Miguel Cabrera turn into an inning-ending double play in the third inning when the ball hit off starter Blake Beavan's right elbow and ricocheted sharply to third baseman Kyle Seager.

They had games like that last year and pulled them out, even when their chances at holding onto the lead seemed slip. Games like this might just be the payback.

"I'm not upset with Octavio Dotel one bit," Leyland said. "I had to ask him to do something tonight that we don't ask him to do often on this club. I was shocked that he walked them. That was the killer."

Dotel missed the strike zone with 11 of his first 12 pitches. Not only did he walk .147-hitting Brendan Ryan on five pitches and Suzuki on four while falling to a 3-0 count to Jesus Montero, but a wild pitch and passed ball allowed both baserunners to move up.

Everything Dotel threw, he said, was darting inside against right-handed hitters, outside on lefties.

By the time the Mariners put a ball in play against him, they had the tying run 90 feet away. Montero's double off the center-field fence on a full-count pitch brought in Ichiro and set up the winning tally.

"That at-bat I was trying to get the right pitch," Montero said. "He was throwing ball, ball, ball, ball. You got to look for the right pitch, and thank God that I found that right pitch. It was good."

Duane Below replaced Dotel, but had little chance. Kyle Seager's sacrifice bunt moved pinch-runner Munenori Kawasaki to third, and Kawasaki came home on John Jaso's sacrifice fly.

The loss not only spoiled Doug Fister's return to Seattle to face the club that traded him last summer, but the way it happened -- low run support, late-inning lead squandered -- had to make him feel like he never left.

Fister hadn't faced Major League competition since his first start of the season, April 7 against the Red Sox, but he showed no rust in picking apart his old team for seven scoreless innings on four hits with no walks.

"He was fantastic today," catcher Alex Avila said. "It was a lot of fun to catch him. He threw great."

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.

Dirks' three RBIs back Verlander in Seattle

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 5/9/2012 1:17 AM ET

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SEATTLE -- Tigers manager Jim Leyland didn't survive a contentious third inning with home-plate umpire Brian Knight. Fortunately, his ace did.

In the end, Justin Verlander's six innings against the Mariners weren't dominant, but they were good enough to let the Detroit's early outburst off Mariners starter Kevin Millwood stand for a 6-4 victory on Tuesday night at Safeco Field.

The victory ended the Tigers' five-game losing streak to the Mariners and took some of the sting out of Seattle's ninth-inning comeback the previous night.

For Verlander (3-1), the win extended his road unbeaten streak to 11 straight decisions since July, continuing the longest such streak by a Tigers starter since Denny McLain in 1968. Yet, it marked his first win at Safeco Field since 2008, when he led the American League in losses.

Verlander had lost his last three starts here, including two in 2010. He missed out on pitching here during the Tigers' only visit last year, denying a chance to see what he could do against what ended up being an anemic Seattle offense.

The retooled version of the Mariners has had its struggles, too, but not against Detroit. Despite a 5-0 Tigers lead after an inning and a half, Seattle had its chances against Verlander, whose pitch count escalated in a hurry thanks to several long at-bats early.

Three RBIs in two at-bats for Andy Dirks paced the Tigers' early onslaught, marking Verlander's largest lead of the season. Three straight singles from the top of the Mariners' order not only put Seattle on the scoreboard, it put Detroit on edge for an interesting inning.

Ichiro Suzuki's RBI single came on an 0-2 pitch below his knees, plating Dustin Ackley. By contrast, Verlander fell behind Kyle Seager on some close pitches before Seager smacked a two-run single to right-center field.

Once Verlander didn't get a called third strike on a 1-2 curveball to John Jaso, Leyland's critique of Knight's strike zone earned the skipper his first ejection of the year. Verlander also had words for Knight after a 98-mph fastball at the knees, but recovered to strike out Jaso and hold the Mariners there.

Verlander was already at 68 pitches by that point. He finished with 113 pitches over six innings, handing the lead over to a Tigers bullpen that had taken Detroit's last three losses but had a three-run lead restored thanks to Prince Fielder's seventh-inning solo homer.

Phil Coke gave up a run in the seventh, but retired Ichiro and Jesus Montero to strand the potential tying run at the plate. Joaquin Benoit worked the eighth to set up Jose Valverde for his sixth 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.

Smyly's tough luck continues in Seattle

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 5/10/2012 12:30 AM ET

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SEATTLE -- Once again, Drew Smyly had a borderline dominant stint with a no-decision to show for it. And the Tigers have another loss to show for another close game with the Mariners.

The good news for the Tigers is that they're done with the Mariners for the season after five losses in six meetings. But that does little to ease the damage of a three-game series that featured two Mariners wins secured in their final trip to the plate. The second of them came Wednesday, when John Jaso's eighth-inning RBI single brought in Michael Saunders and sent Detroit to a 2-1 loss at Safeco Field.

It marked Detroit's third one-run loss to Seattle this year. Probably more painful, though, was the two-hit, one-run performance squandered from Smyly, who continued to show he can do better than hold his own in the fifth spot in the rotation.

Smyly didn't allow a base hit outside of the fourth inning, when Ichiro Suzuki went to the opposite field on a one-out single and Kyle Seager sent a line drive off the right-field fence for a two-out RBI double. A pair of walks comprised the other two baserunners off the rookie left-hander.

Smyly lasted six innings with 93 pitches, close to the 100-pitch count the Tigers have in mind for him. Fellow rookie Luke Putkonen (0-1) replaced him in his first outing in 10 days and sent down the Mariners in order in the seventh before Saunders pinch-hit for ex-Tiger Casper Wells and doubled down the left-field line leading off the eighth.

Chone Figgins' sacrifice bunt moved Saunders into position for Jaso, who sent a liner into left off left-hander Duane Below.

On most nights, Smyly's outing would've given the Tigers' bullpen a lead to protect. However, Detroit's offensive struggles continued against Seattle starter Jason Vargas (4-2), who tossed eight innings of five-hit ball with six strikeouts.

Detroit's run came from the bottom of its order after backup catcher Gerald Laird led off the sixth inning with a double. Danny Worth's failed sacrifice bunt attempts became moot when he singled Laird over to third for Austin Jackson's sacrifice fly. Brennan Boesch's single moved Worth to second before Miguel Cabrera hit into an inning-ending double play.

In no other inning did the Tigers have a runner in scoring position. Jackson tried to get one more rally going with a leadoff walk in the ninth, but Brennan Boesch hit into a double play off closer Brandon League.

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.

Miggy turns in A-plus effort as Tigers knock off A's

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 5/11/2012 1:20 AM ET

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OAKLAND -- Of course manager Jim Leyland predicted Thursday his team was going to hit. He didn't necessarily mean that night, but he'll take it.

By the time the Tigers were done batting around in the third inning against A's starter Bartolo Colon and Jordan Norberto, they had put up as many runs in three innings as they did their previous three nights in Seattle. The outburst made for a relatively easy night for Max Scherzer to end his three-game winless streak in a 10-6 victory.

Whether it's enough to spark the Tigers on the winning streak they've been trying to build for the past few weeks will be seen this weekend. For now, it continued their stretch of alternating wins and losses to 12 games, but it was their most decisive win in that stretch.

Two days after Leyland said his team was chasing pitches outside the strike zone and not giving itself a chance, and one night after Leyland compared his team's offensive struggles to a broken record, the Tigers had four members of their starting lineup at the ballpark early for extra batting practice.

"We'll be fine," Leyland forecast before the game, "but we won't be fine just talking about it. We'll be fine by working at it, working at it and grinding it out, doing what we do. We will definitely come out of it."

Hours later, everybody got their swings in against Colon, who attacked the strike zone and paid for it with eight runs (seven earned) on nine hits over 2 1/3 innings. Nearly a third of Colon's 31 strikes thrown were struck for base hits.

Andy Dirks homered and singled off Colon for his fifth straight multihit game. Miguel Cabrera, who came to town in an 0-for-14 slump, singled and homered off Colon before adding two more singles against Oakland's bullpen for a season-high four hits. Alex Avila ended his 0-for-11 skid with a single and a two-run double off Colon (3-3).

The slumps fell almost as quickly as the hits did. Every Tiger except Prince Fielder and Ryan Raburn had a base hit by the end of the third.

It was a welcome outburst for Scherzer, who had received just 14 runs of support over his previous five outings combined. He recovered from Kila Ka'aihue's second-inning two-run homer to retire nine of Oakland's next 11 batters. Those were the only runs Scherzer would allow, as he scattered five hit and notched nine strikeouts over 6 1/3 frames.

After going hitless in his first three at-bats against his former club, Brandon Inge blasted an eighth-inning grand slam to pull Oakland within four runs.

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 unable to cool off Inge in loss to A's

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 5/12/2012 1:10 AM ET

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OAKLAND -- The Tigers found the form they'd been looking for out of Brandon Inge ever since last summer. It just came in the wrong uniform for them, even if it has become the right situation for Inge.

Realistically, the Tigers were already on their way to defeat by the time Inge delivered his three-run homer off Duane Below for his second homer in as many days off his old pitching staff. Still, as punctuation marks go, it was a pretty good exclamation point to turn what had been a three-run game into what ended up being an 11-4 loss Friday night.

The statement game for Inge continued the string of alternating wins and losses for the Tigers, who have been hovering at .500 or a game above it every day since April 26 -- ironically, the day they released Inge.

While the deciding plays have been different each day, their past six losses have come with two runs or less scored from their lineup. Friday continued their recent struggles against left-handers, with seven strong innings from Oakland southpaw Tommy Milone (5-2).

Most days, those offensive struggles spoiled some well-pitched games. Friday wasn't one of them, not with four extra-base hits on a night when Rick Porcello (3-3) had trouble keeping the ball low in the strike zone and the A's made him pay early.

While Inge added to his reunion numbers with an RBI single in the opening inning, the bulk of the damage came right above him in the lineup. Kila Ka'aihue continued to defy Detroit's game plan with a pair of hard-hit doubles to the outfield fences, and Josh Reddick had five RBIs with two home runs, including a leadoff shot in the third to put the A's on top for good at 3-2.

Porcello's four runs on nine hits over five innings ended the Tigers' streak of nine consecutive quality starts. Below, who had been used as a left-handed specialist over his previous couple outings, gave up a walk and a stolen base to Jemile Weeks ahead of Reddick's RBI single in the sixth.

Seth Smith's two-out blooper into short left field brought up Inge, who got a 2-1 fastball from Below and drove it deep into the left-field seats. It marked his fourth home run in 10 games with the Athletics, matching his total as a Tiger since the start of last season.

Add in Inge's grand slam in Thursday's series opener, and he has driven in eight runs over the past two games against his former team. Once Reddick homered again in the seventh, he put Oakland into double digits.

Inge has said multiple times since the Tigers' release that he had no hard feelings against his former employer, who ate the bulk of his remaining salary for the year to make the move. He said Thursday he didn't think he'd be having this kind of success if he was still in Detroit, citing the regular at-bats he has been getting in Oakland as a major difference.

The Tigers, meanwhile, have been happy for him to find a place where he could get regular at-bats. After the last two nights, obviously, they've been wishing those at-bats weren't going so well.

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 slip under .500 after loss to A's

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 5/12/2012 10:47 PM ET

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OAKLAND -- After alternating wins and losses for two weeks, the Tigers finally have a streak going. It's not on the side they wanted.

Brandon McCarthy's 10-strikeout, four-hit performance made Detroit's powerful lineup look helpless against his change of speeds and Saturday's 3-1 loss to the A's made the Tigers a sub-.500 team for the first time since last May 29.

Detroit, which has now lost two straight, had hovered between .500 and one-game over for the previous 13 games, getting a different result every day. The one relative constant had been their offensive struggles in their defeats. They had scored two runs or less in their previous five losses until a pair of late-inning runs Friday night broke the string.

Still, for all the hiccups of this formidable lineup, Detroit still hasn't been shut out since Edwin Jackson tossed a complete-game blanking of his former teammates last July 16, a span of 101 games. But the way McCarthy pitched over seven innings, he could've gone seven more without giving Detroit a chance.

Two singles from Brennan Boesch and two bloopers from Don Kelly and Andy Dirks were all the Tigers managed against McCarthy, who changed speeds and deceived with the shadows of Oakland Coliseum hanging over his mound.

Just as important was the line McCarthy (3-3) posted on the Tigers' power-hitting trio of Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder and Delmon Young. They combined to go 0-for-9 off McCarthy with six strikeouts, half of them by Young.

Tigers starter Doug Fister (0-1) tried to keep pace as best he could in his second start back from the disabled list, recovering from a first-inning run on three singles to take a 1-0 game through six. Two add-on runs against Phil Coke in the seventh gave the A's some insurance.

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 delivers as Tigers split series with A's
Reigning MVP allows one run on two hits over seven innings

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 5/13/2012 7:06 PM ET

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OAKLAND -- Justin Verlander can't hit for the Tigers to help break them out of their offensive struggles, at least not until Interleague Play. The way he pitched on Sunday, the Tigers didn't need a hit to get him the lead he needed.

Though Miguel Cabrera's two-out RBI single put the Tigers on the scoreboard, a trio of two-out walks in the sixth inning put Detroit on top for good.

The last of them capped an eight-pitch duel between Austin Jackson and Grant Balfour, ending with a bases-loaded walk that drove in Brennan Boesch for the difference in a 3-1 Tigers victory to split a four-game series against the A's.

With an A's lineup that was missing four regulars -- Jemile Weeks, Kurt Suzuki, Kila Ka'aihue and Brandon Inge -- due to injuries, Verlander seemed poised to take a no-hit bid into the late innings. He retired Oakland's first 11 batters without much trouble, including four strikeouts from the first eight hitters, until Josh Reddick fought off an inside fastball and hit a jam-shot into shallow center field for a two-out single in the fourth.

Jackson's one-out single in the fifth set up the Tigers to give Verlander a lead, once Jackson stole second and took third on a wild pitch. Cabrera entered the day batting .282 on the season, but .455 (5-for-11) with runners in scoring position and two outs, and he built on that by grounding a Jarrod Parker pitch back through the middle for a 1-0 lead.

Verlander's lead lasted exactly three pitches. Seth Smith sent his 2-0 fastball leading off the bottom of the fifth up the Oakland Coliseum stairs behind the right-field corner for a solo homer -- his sixth hit of the series -- to tie the score at 1-1.

It was new life for A's rookie Jarrod Parker, who had kept himself in a duel with the reigning AL Cy Young winner and MVP by stranding two runners in the opening inning and leaving the bases loaded in the second.

Parker retired eight straight Tigers after that and sent down the first two batters in the sixth on stellar defensive plays by Daric Barton and Eric Sogard before Brennan Boesch's liner fell just in short of Collin Cowgill's diving attempt in center.

Boesch never hesitated around first base, turning it into a double for his fourth hit in two days. The Tigers had left him in scoring position the preivous three times. Parker's wildness and Balfour's struggles as Oakland's deposed closer helped get Boesch around this time.

Jhonny Peralta walked on five pitches, then struggling Ryan Raburn walked on four pitches to chase Parker from the game. Balfour fell behind 2-0 to Jackson, brought it back full and watched Jackson foul off three straight fastballs before Balfour's third try at the payoff pitch missed the outside corner for ball four.

That was enough for Verlander, who regrouped to retire nine of his final 10 batters after Smith's home run to finish with seven innings of two-hit ball. Joaquin Benoit replaced him for the eighth ahead of Jose Valverde's seventh save.

The Tigers added an insurance run in the ninth, as Cabrera singled home Jackson for a second time.

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.

Pair of three-run leads evaporate for Tigers
Early offense fades; Fielder, Cabrera each knock three hits

By Cash Kruth / MLB.com | 5/14/2012 11:15 PM ET

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CHICAGO -- The Tigers solved part of the equation Monday night in attempting to break out of their season-long offensive funk. As for the next steps -- scoring runs and getting the big hit -- well, it's still a work in progress.

Because of that, the Tigers (17-18) are back below .500.

The Tigers pounded out 10 hits, but left 11 men on base, and reliever Luke Putkonen allowed three runs in the sixth inning in a 7-5 loss to the White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field.

White Sox left fielder Dayan Viciedo drove in a career-high four runs, including the go-ahead, two-run single in the sixth, to hand the Tigers their third loss in the last four games.

Detroit was playing from behind in part because of its lack of execution and also because of Viciedo's ability to step up in the clutch.

After Chicago's Alex Rios and A.J. Pierzynski began the sixth inning with consecutive singles off Putkonen, he then walked Alexei Ramirez -- prompting a mound visit from pitching coach Jeff Jones. On the very next pitch, Viciedo singled up the middle to score Rios and Pierzynski. Brent Morel then plated Ramirez for the final run.

The Tigers put two on with one out in the seventh inning before going down in order, and Miguel Cabrera singled with one out in the eighth before Prince Fielder grounded into an inning-ending double play.

The Tigers got an early lead thanks in large part to a wild outing by White Sox left-hander John Danks, who worked only three-plus innings.

The Tigers jumped out front in the first when Fielder's two-run double scored Andy Dirks and Cabrera, who walked and singled, respectively. The double was Fielder's first hit in his last 22 at-bats, a career-long drought for the first baseman, who finished 3-for-5. Delmon Young's double scored Fielder.

Detroit added two more runs in the third, as Danks continued to struggle with his command. With one out and the bases loaded, the lefty walked Peralta to plate Young before Ryan Raburn scored on Gerald's Laird's sacrifice fly. Danks issued his fourth free pass to Austin Jackson to once again load the bases, but escaped the inning without any further damage.

The Tigers could've gotten to Danks even more in the second with runners on first and second, but a hard grounder down the third-base line by Cabrera that appeared to be fair was waved foul by third-base umpire Gerry Davis.

Danks was removed in the fourth inning after allowing consecutive singles without recording an out as three White Sox relievers combined to shut out Detroit the rest of the way.

Tigers left-hander Drew Smyly turned in just his second non-quality start of the season, giving up a pair of two-run home runs to Adam Dunn and Viciedo in the first and fifth innings, respectively. Dunn's homer was his 12th of the year after hitting 11 all of last season and his first off a lefty since Aug. 6, 2010, when he hit two off the Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw.

Cash Kruth is a reporter for MLB.com. Follow him on Twitter at @cashkruth. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Tigers roar past White Sox with eight-run sixth
Cabrera, Raburn and Jackson homer in decisive frame

By Cash Kruth / MLB.com | 5/15/2012 5:55 PM ET

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CHICAGO -- That's more like the Tigers offense everyone expected.

After struggling for much of the season to score runs, the Tigers put their offensive power on full display Tuesday afternoon at U.S. Cellular Field.

Miguel Cabrera, Ryan Raburn and Austin Jackson each homered as part of an eight-run sixth inning, as the Tigers stormed back from six down to beat the White Sox, 10-8.

Raburn had his second straight two-hit performance and drove in four runs, while Prince Fielder went 3-for-4 as the Tigers (18-18) split the two-game set in Chicago to climb back to .500.

After being shut out by American League ERA leader Jake Peavy through the game's first five innings, Detroit exploded for eight runs in the sixth off Peavy and White Sox reliever Will Ohman.

After Andy Dirks led off with a single, Cabrera started the power display with a two-run shot that nearly landed on the left-field concourse.

Fielder followed with a double and Peavy hit Brennan Boesch to bring up Raburn, who went deep for the first time this season with a three-run shot to bring the Tigers within one.

Peavy was removed after walking Jhonny Peralta and, after hitting Don Kelly, Ohman (0-2) served up a three-run homer to Jackson to complete Detroit's comeback.

The eight-run inning tied a season high for most runs in an inning for the Tigers, who also scored eight runs in Thursday's third inning against Oakland. The three sixth-inning homers are the most by the Tigers in a single frame this season.

Detroit added two more runs in the seventh on RBI singles by Raburn and Peralta, while four relievers combined to hold the White Sox scoreless the rest of the way.

The Tigers were forced to play catch-up after starter Max Scherzer allowed six runs (five earned) while throwing 99 pitches in only four-plus innings. It was just the second non-quality start in 11 career outings against the White Sox for Scherzer, who entered Tuesday with the most strikeouts and second-lowest ERA (2.39) against the White Sox among all Major League starters since 2010.

The White Sox and catcher A.J. Pierzynski (5-for-5) ended that trend quickly, scoring two in the first when Pierzynski hit a soft liner into left to score Alejandro De Aza. Tigers left fielder Don Kelly charged the ball and bobbled it, allowing Gordon Beckham to score.

The White Sox added two more in the third on a solo home run by Paul Konerko and an RBI single by Dayan Viciedo. Pierzynski had a single in the fifth inning to plate Chicago's final two runs.

Tigers closer Jose Valverde exited with an unknown injury in the ninth after getting two outs and giving up two hits. He was also charged with a walk.

Alexei Ramirez drove in two runs off Octavio Dotel with a double before Dotel closed out the win.

Cash Kruth is a reporter for MLB.com. Follow him on Twitter at @cashkruth. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Leads slip away for Tigers in loss to Twins
Quartet of errors from infield detrimental as Porcello struggles

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 5/16/2012 10:39 PM ET

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DETROIT -- After a couple weeks of pitching without much offense, the Tigers have spent the last few days using offense to overcome pitching. They overcame another early deficit Wednesday against the Twins, but they couldn't hold on once they pulled ahead.

The Tigers had two leads they couldn't preserve. The resulting 11-7 loss left them again alternating wins and losses, and sitting back at a game under .500. Yet after worrying for close to a month about their formidable offense, their last few games created more concerns about pitching.

One night after Max Scherzer struggled to try to get past the fourth inning, using 99 pitches, the Twins chased Rick Porcello after four innings and 100 pitches. A defense that erred around the horn didn't help him, putting the first runner on in a two-run opening inning before extending the second inning for Brian Dozier's three-run homer.

Still, while the errors provided extra outs and baserunners, the runs all scored on hits, including Dozier's second Major League home run three pitches after a Ryan Raburn error in the second.

Four of the six hits off Porcello went for extra bases, including a Josh Willingham double off the top of the right-field fence leadoff off the third and setting up Minnesota's tying run after the Tigers had taken a 6-5 lead.

The high pitch count was even more unusual for Porcello. For that matter, it was a relative rarity in baseball. According to research on baseball-reference.com, Porcello was just the third Major League pitcher since at least 1988 to last just four innings with 100 pitches without allowing a walk.

While the Twins put together the kind of big hits one would expect from the Tigers, Detroit's outburst off Twins starter Nick Blackburn came without an extra-base hit. Prince Fielder had sacrifice flies in each of his first two at-bats, the latter following a one-out walk and five consecutive singles in the second inning.

The Tigers knocked out Blackburn after two innings and 53 pitches. Minnesota's bullpen limited Detroit to a run over the final seven innings, that coming on a Miguel Cabrera RBI double that briefly put the Tigers in front again before Jamey Carroll's two-run double in the next inning off Duane Below put the Twins in front for good.

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.

Miscues, missed chances spell defeat for Tigers

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 5/17/2012 3:44 PM ET

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DETROIT -- Doug Fister's path back to the dominance he enjoyed in the Tigers' rotation down the stretch last year took a wild turn Thursday. So did the Tigers' recovery at home.

While an uncharacteristically hittable Fister gave up back-to-back home runs in a three-run third inning, it was a Prince Fielder error at first base that set up the eventual deciding run in a 4-3 Detroit loss to Minnesota on Thursday afternoon at Comerica Park.

The Tigers' fifth loss in their last seven games not only sealed a two-game series sweep for the last-place Twins, it dropped Detroit to two games under .500 for the first time this season. More importantly, it continued an early-season stretch in which the Tigers haven't put together good pitching with good hitting for a consistent stretch.

Detroit was decent in both facets on Thursday, but not good enough. All three of the Tigers' runs came on solo homers by left-handed hitters off rookie starter P.J. Walters (1-1), who had a no-hitter going before Brennan Boesch led off the fifth with a home run to right.

Andy Dirks and Prince Fielder added solo shots in the sixth, setting up the Tigers with two chances to tie or take the lead with less than two outs. Both times, Twins relievers escaped with inning-ending double plays.

The latter of those chances in the eighth inning featured left-hander Glen Perkins missing the strike zone with 11 of his first 12 pitches, walking Dirks and Miguel Cabrera before falling behind on a 2-0 count to Fielder. Perkins recovered to strike out Fielder on his next three pitches before Delmon Young grounded sharply to Jamey Carroll to end the threat.

That sent Fister (0-2) to defeat despite a decent recovery that saw him salvage six quality innings, a possibility that looked remote after eight Twins hits and two walks over the first three frames. The last two of those hits provided the scoring damage with back-to-back home runs from Justin Morneau and Trevor Plouffe.

Fister stranded two runners in the fourth with a running catch from left fielder Dirks, but he couldn't avoid an add-on run once Fielder missed his throw to first on Josh Willingham's comebacker. Willingham ended up on third base on the Fielder error, his second in as many days and the Tigers' eighth in three games. Morneau's ensuing groundout drove Willingham in for the decisive run.

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 loses shot at third no-no in ninth

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 5/18/2012 11:41 PM ET

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DETROIT -- Sure, the Perfect Game club is probably nice. But the three no-hitter club is more exclusive. Justin Verlander was knocking on the door Friday night.

With one flailing two-strike swing and one shattered bat, Pirates leadoff hitter Josh Harrison slammed the door shut and chained the lock.

"That's why throwing no-hitters is so difficult," Verlander said. "It doesn't take a hard one, it just takes the right placement."

And with that, Friday's 6-0 Tigers win joined the many near no-hitters Verlander has thrown over the last two years, ending with his first one-hitter. It's the first no-hit bid he has lost in the ninth inning.

It was close enough that just about everybody in the sellout crowd of 41,661 not wearing a Pittsburgh uniform at Comerica Park thought he was going to get it.

"I think it's a little bit more surprising to me that I didn't than [if] I did," Verlander did.

It was also an example why many expect Verlander to eventually join Nolan Ryan, Sandy Koufax, Bob Feller, Cy Young and Larry Corcoran with his third.

Many in the crowd might have had a feeling early. While Verlander was entering the time of the year when he always seems to be at his toughest, the Pirates came to town with the lowest offensive numbers in baseball.

The way Verlander dropped curveballs on the plate, sent changeups at Pittsburgh's aggressive young hitters and spotted fastballs on the corner, few hitters around the league would've stood a chance. At the end, he had Harrison swinging badly at what might be his fourth-best pitch.

"I've wanted to be a part of Tigers history since I was a little kid, and I almost was," said Pirates manager and Michigan native Clint Hurdle. "For my money, it was a thing of beauty to watch. That's a master craftsman with a power tool. He can take you places you don't want to go."

He always has that potential. This always seems to be the time of year he puts it together, almost as regular as the seagulls that flock to the ballpark every year around this time to feast on bugs.

Verlander's second no-hitter came last May, holding the Blue Jays to an eighth-inning walk in Toronto. His first no-hitter, in 2007, came during Interleague Play against a Brewers team that featured a young slugging first baseman named Prince Fielder.

"They've always happened to me," Fielder joked later. "I've never been a part of it."

His catcher had a pretty strong feeling around the fourth inning. Alex Avila caught that no-hitter in Toronto last May, when Verlander used sliders and changeups to baffle a formidable Jays lineup. Friday's pitching, Avila said, was better.

Most teams start leaving pitchers with a no-hit going alone around the middle innings. Avila said he didn't talk to Verlander after the third. They simply had nothing to discuss.

"His stuff today, everything was nasty," Avila said after Verlander's 12-strikeout, two-walk performance. "Everything was working great. Changeup, curveball, slider, fastball, we were getting outs with every single one. He felt comfortable throwing every single one of them."

In what has become classic Verlander form, he mixed those pitches early while saving his upper-90s fastball for the seventh inning, when the lineup came back around to the more seasoned Pirate batters.

Rarer than the baserunners -- Neil Walker drew a walk as the second batter of the game, as did Andrew McCutchen in the seventh inning -- were the times the Pirates came close to a hit. They hit just three balls out of the infield through the first eight innings, two of them from Harrison.

The second of those nearly spared the drama and broke up the no-hitter in the sixth with a drive to deep left-center field that sent Don Kelly sprinting toward one of the deepest parts of the ballpark. Kelly was filling in for center fielder Austin Jackson, who missed the game with an abdominal strain.

"We were playing him the other way," Kelly said. "When he hit it, I didn't know at first how long it was going to hang up. Once saw it kind of go up more than a line drive, I knew I had a chance."

Had Verlander gotten the no-hitter, Kelly's running catch would've been the defensive gem that became the highlight. Nothing else was close to requiring extraordinary effort.

Once Verlander got through the middle of the order in the seventh, walking McCutchen after a full count but spotting a curveball for a called third strike on Garrett Jones, the watch was on. He geared up his fastball and struck out the Pirates in order in the eighth -- Casey McGehee watching a 98-mph fastball, Nate McLouth missing a 99-mph heater and Clint Barmes swinging at a slider in the dirt.

"Once the seventh comes, I'm not going to let them get a hit on something that's not my best stuff," Verlander said. "So I gave it all I've got the last three innings."

Once Mike McKenry grounded out to short leading off the ninth, that slider made Harrison look silly with two ugly swings for an 0-2 count. Harrison fouled off another, then took a curveball off the plate for ball one.

"I was too amped up. I was ready for the fastball, and I swung at the first two without really seeing them," Harrison said. "So I tried to slow everything down."

Harrison's deciding swing wasn't much prettier than his first two, and it shattered his bat. Still, he got enough to line it over Verlander's head and past shortstop Jhonny Peralta for a single.

"The first two he swung at were down in the dirt," Verlander said, "and this one was off the plate where he was able to just kind of stick his bat out there and hit it up the middle."

Said Avila: "His bat died a winner."

The Tigers were still winners. But they came close to so much more.

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.

Prince, Smyly not enough against Pirates

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 5/19/2012 7:19 PM ET

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DETROIT -- How long does the momentum of a near no-hitter last, you ask? Not that long.

The momentum A.J. Burnett has built in his recent outings against the Tigers, on the other hand, has some legs to it.

While Drew Smyly arguably held his own, the combination of Josh Harrison and Andrew McCutchen got him twice for a pair of two-run homers. That was enough for Burnett, whose six innings of two-run ball continued his success at Comerica Park and halted Detroit's momentum in a 4-3 Tigers loss Saturday afternoon.

Burnett, once wined and dined by the Tigers as a free agent, had plenty of trouble against them in his first few years as an American Leaguer with Toronto, living up to his reputation for inconsistent command. Since leaving the Jays for the Yankees in 2009, however, he has fared surprisingly well against the Tabbies, splitting a pair of regular-season outings last regular season before turning one of the biggest surprises of last year's Division Series with 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball in Detroit in Game 4.

Now with a fresh start in Pittsburgh, Burnett isn't dominant, but he's effective. He had his chances to turn wild and fall apart Saturday, but didn't fall into his old struggles.

Burnett had runners on base with two outs in each of his six innings and stranded them all. None were more tense than the second inning, when he went from two outs and nobody on to bases loaded and a full count to Don Kelly. Pedro Alvarez leaned into the third-base stands to take back Kelly's foul pop-up and get Burnett out of his jam.

Burnett (2-2) repaid him by not coming close to another jam the rest of the afternoon. His only scoring damage was Prince Fielder's 394-foot line drive into the right-field seats.

Meanwhile, Harrison continued to pester the Tigers after breaking up Justin Verlander's no-hit bid in the ninth inning Friday night. The problem for Smyly Saturday was that those troubles came directly in front of McCutchen, by far the most dangerous hitter in Pittsburgh's league-worst offense.

Harrison bunted his way on with a well-placed roller to the first-base side of the mound in the opening inning. McCutchen turned on a 92 mph fastball from Smyly and sent it 416 feet to left field for his sixth home run of the year.

Smyly recovered from a two-out walk to Harrison with a McCutchen fly out near the warning track in right field to strand the bases loaded in the third inning. After Smyly's 0-2 pitch hit Harrison in the fifth, McCutchen hit seemingly the exact same type of opposite-field fly ball, but it stayed fair and carried out for a 354-foot homer to give Pittsburgh a 4-2 lead.

Though a Rod Barajas passed ball allowed Miguel Cabrera to score and whittle the lead to one, the Tigers couldn't rally from there. Former Tigers reliever Jason Grilli struck out Alex Avila to strand a runner on second in the seventh, then Ramon Santiago lined sharply to first baseman Casey McGehee for a double play to end the eighth.

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 sets career high with 15 K's

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 5/20/2012 3:55 PM ET

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DETROIT -- This is the Max Scherzer the Tigers have been waiting to see. The result was the kind of strikeout total nobody has seen from a Tiger in 40 years.

He got rewarded for it thanks to the kind of clutch hitting the Tigers have been awaiting from their lineup this homestand.

While Scherzer became the first Tiger since 1972 to strike out 15 batters in a game, he left with a deficit until Alex Avila's two-run single in the bottom of the seventh propelled Detroit to a 4-3 victory Sunday afternoon at Comerica Park.

Scherzer's performance brought back memories of his Memorial Day weekend performance two years ago, when he returned from a brief stint at Triple-A Toledo to strike out 14 Athletics. That outing started him on a dominant run of pitching for the rest of the season.

Manager Jim Leyland referenced that roll when talking about Scherzer earlier this week. If Sunday was the catalyst, it was even better than his 2010 version. For high-strikeout, high-velocity pitching, it was arguably his best outing ever.

Scherzer had his fastball command back in order after an early season struggle, and he had a Pirates lineup aggressively seeking to swing against him. Once Neil Walker and Andrew McCutchen, arguably Pittsburgh's best two hitters, went down swinging on 0-2 pitches to end the opening inning, the roll was on.

Scherzer (3-3) struck out 12 of the 18 batters he faced over the first five innings, all of the strikeouts swinging. Six of them came against the Pirates' run-production trio of Walker, McCutchen and Pedro Alvarez. Some of them, he induced to chase high fastballs. Others, he set up for devastating changeups. Some got one of each.

McCutchen, who homered twice to lead Pittsburgh to victory a day earlier, struck out three times against him, each time swinging at an offspeed offering.

Scherzer's 15 strikeouts fell one short of the team record held by Mickey Lolich, who did it twice in a three-week span in 1969. Lolich was also the last Tiger to fan 15, doing so against the Red Sox on Oct. 2, 1972. Scherzer tied Paul Foytack for the team record for a right-handed pitcher.

Just seven balls were put in play against Scherzer over the first six innings. The fact that two of them left the field nearly set up his downfall. Rod Barajas came up after Scherzer had struck out Pittsburgh's previous five batters and jumped a first-pitch fastball, sending it out to left field for his fourth homer of the year in the top of the fifth.

After Jhonny Peralta's second homer of the year tied it again in the bottom of the inning, Walker fouled off four two-strike fastballs before he got an offspeed pitch he could send out to right for his second homer of the season.

Pirates starter Kevin Correia wasn't nearly so deceptive, but he was effective until Prince Fielder doubled and scored on a Delmon Young single to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh. A one-out walk to Peralta and a Barajas passed ball set up Avila, whose ground ball through a drawn-in infield eluded both reliever Tony Watson and shortstop Clint Barmes.

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 sets career high with 15 K's
Flamethrower fans most batters by Detroit hurler in 40 years

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 5/20/2012 6:20 PM ET


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DETROIT -- This is the Max Scherzer the Tigers have been waiting to see. It took a lot of work to get him there.

"I've worked really hard over the past two or three weeks on identifying this," he said.

Or as manager Jim Leyland said, "He responded to the challenge."

The result Sunday was the kind of strikeout total nobody had seen from a Tiger in 40 years. Once Alex Avila's go-ahead, two-run single rolled past the mound and shortstop Clint Barmes in the seventh inning, the result was also a Tigers' 4-3 victory.

He just missed the franchise record for a high-strikeout game. He'll take the victory instead.

"I want to be somebody on this team that can step up and help this team win," Scherzer said. "I know I'm capable of it on a consistent basis."

He did that Sunday about as well as anybody has for the Tigers this year, this side of Justin Verlander. He never pitched with a lead, but he pitched with the determination to give them every opportunity to win.

More importantly, he pitched with a fastball that seemingly exploded on hitters.

"This is hard to believe," manager Jim Leyland said in an attempt to explain, "but sometimes 95 [mph] and 95 are different. There's a 95 that's [whoosh] and there's a 95 that's [zip]. Today he had that at the right moment -- right in the hitting zone, just before it got to the plate."

Scherzer's performance brought back memories of his Memorial Day weekend performance two years ago, when he returned from Triple-A Toledo to strike out 14 Athletics. That started him on a dominant run of pitching for the rest of the season.

Leyland referenced that roll earlier this week. Sunday was even better than his 2010 version. For high-strikeout, high-velocity pitching, it was arguably his best outing ever.

Scherzer already led the league in strikeouts per nine innings, including two nine-strikeout performances over his previous three starts and an 11-strikeout gem in April. But he also had a seven-walk debacle over 4 2/3 innings in April at Yankee Stadium, and a 99-pitch, four-inning no-decision to the White Sox earlier this week.

Scherzer was trying to tweak his mechanics, but couldn't get it consistent. As pitching coach Jeff Jones put it, he was trying to "get everything on line, basically, keep everything going to the target."

Today, Scherzer had that, and he had a Pirates lineup ready to challenge him. Once Neil Walker and Andrew McCutchen, arguably Pittsburgh's best two hitters, went down swinging on 0-2 pitches to end the opening inning, the roll was on.

"He was aggressive. They were swinging," Leyland said. "He was aggressive in the strike zone."

The Pirates swung and missed on all 15 strikeouts.

"For the most part, I was just working in the zone to try and get quick outs," Scherzer said, "but I wasn't able to do it because they were fouling off or swinging and missing. So I think that's why the strikeouts ended up happening."

Scherzer (3-3) struck out 12 of the 18 batters he faced over the first five innings. Six came against the Pirates' run-production trio of Walker, McCutchen and Pedro Alvarez. Some chased high fastballs. Others, he set up for devastating changeups. Some got one of each.

McCutchen, who homered twice to lead Pittsburgh to victory a day earlier, struck out three times, each time at an offspeed offering.

"My changeup was really working well today," Scherzer said. "I was able to throw it to both lefties and righties, and I was able to generate swings and misses out of it."

Scherzer's 15 strikeouts fell one short of the team record held by Mickey Lolich, who did it twice in a three-week span in 1969. Lolich was also the last Tiger to fan 15, doing so against the Red Sox on Oct. 2, 1972. Scherzer tied Paul Foytack for the team record for a right-handed pitcher.

"I've seen this guy pitch quite a bit," said Pirates manager Clint Hurdle, the former manager of the Rockies when Scherzer was with the D-backs, "and he's got a big arm. When he gets his breaking ball in play like today, he's tough. Matching someone like Lolich ... that's good stuff."

Just seven balls were put in play against Scherzer over the first six innings. The fact that two cleared the fences nearly set up his downfall. Rod Barajas came up after Scherzer had struck out Pittsburgh's previous five batters and jumped a first-pitch fastball for his fourth homer of the year in the top of the fifth.

After Jhonny Peralta's second homer of the year tied it again in the bottom of the inning, Walker fouled off four two-strike fastballs before he got an offspeed pitch he could send out to right for his second homer of the season.

"Walker's at-bat was like a Ted Williams at-bat," Avila said. "We threw the kitchen sink at him."

Pirates starter Kevin Correia wasn't nearly so deceptive, but he was effective until Prince Fielder doubled and scored on a Delmon Young single to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh. A one-out walk to Peralta and a Barajas passed ball set up Avila, whose ground ball through a drawn-in infield eluded both reliever Tony Watson and shortstop Clint Barmes.

Once Joaquin Benoit worked the ninth in place of injured Jose Valverde, Scherzer and the Tigers had their win. That, Scherzer said, was the reward.

"We're in this business to win," Scherzer said. "That's the No. 1 thing why we're here. And whenever you can do something to really help the team win, it's a gratifying feeling for anybody in this clubhouse. For me to go out here today and get the series win, it puts a smile on my face."

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.

Avila homers off Ubaldo in losing effort

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 5/22/2012 10:10 PM ET

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CLEVELAND -- While Ubaldo Jimenez scattered a half-dozen walks and lived to beat the Tigers Tuesday night, the Indians ran Rick Porcello into submission. In the process, Cleveland ran its division lead on Detroit to four games with a 5-3 win at Progressive Field.

The season's first matchup of last year's primary AL Central combatants looked a little like their first series last season, a three-game set the Indians swept by pulling ahead late. Instead of beating the Tigers' bullpen this time, however, the Tribe picked away at Porcello with help from taking extra bases until a two-run sixth pulled Cleveland ahead for good.

Porcello (3-4) has been a study in inconsistency, but he had a pattern to his twists and turns. He had alternated two quality starts with two rough ones through his first eight outings of the year, never turning success into a roll but also never allowing struggles to prolong into a full-on slump. Tuesday marked his third straight subpar start, yet it was different than any of his other losses this year.

Porcello hadn't struck out more than four batters in a game since last July, yet used a combination of fastballs and changeups effectively enough to fan six Indians over 5 1/3 innings Tuesday. His downfall was the efficiency with which the Tribe turned leadoff runners into runs.

Two stolen bases in as many attempts from leadoff batters put the Indians into position to score on the next base hit, including Michael Brantley on his go-ahead tally after a leadoff single in the sixth.

Shin-Soo Choo, who had turned into a leadoff menace atop the Indians' order over the past week, walked and scored in the third inning before his leadoff double in the fifth set up the tying run. Yet it was a wild pitch, a ball in the dirt that skipped past Alex Avila's block attempt, that moved him to third for Travis Hafner's sacrifice fly.

Add the eight hits and five runs, four earned, to Porcello's previous two starts, and the 23-year-old right-hander has allowed 15 runs, 10 earned, on 23 hits over 14 1/3 innings since tossing back-to-back gems in the first week of May.

With one more early rally from the Tigers' offense, Porcello might have been able to overcome it. However, all three Tigers runs off Jimenez came on Avila's first home run since May 4, a 406-foot drive just over the center-field fence for his first homer at Progressive Field. Jimenez walked at least one batter in each inning after that, two in the third, but stranded them all.

Jimenez (5-3) stranded two runners in both the third and fourth innings, overcoming two-out walks each time. His three runs over six innings gained a measure of revenge for three straight losses to the Tigers down the stretch last season.

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.