Justin Verlander took a no hitter into the 8th inning before surrendering a one out single. He finished up a 4-0 win over Cleveland with a complete game 2-hitter. The second hit came with 2 outs in the 9th. Verlander walked one and set a season high for strikeouts for the second straight start, with 12. He upped his record to 8-3 on the season. His ERA now sits at a nifty 2.66 on the season.
Andy Dirks was 3-4 with 2 RBIs. He also stole a base. Alex Avila and Miguel Cabrera also added sac flies. Austin Jackson was 2-4 and added his 10th stolen base of the season. His batting average is approaching .260 after the horrendous early season slump.
This was the first game all season in which Detroit didn't have an extra base hit. They strung together 11 singles. The win of course is much more important. First place means nothing with 96 games left to play, but it's a solid confidence boost given that this season has had some ups and downs so far. Still though Detroit sits at 36-30. On paper before the season the second half of the schedule looked alot easier than the first half, so the hope was that the team could stay afloat as the younger hitters and the starting rotation gelled, then turn it on in the second half.
I personally still expect things to be a dogfight. They have cooled off after a hot start but Cleveland has looked good this year and I certainly don't expect them to collapse, even if they have cooled off from their major league best start. Chicago has a lot of talent. No matter how far down they are Minnesota is still Minnesota and I don't ever count them out until game 162 has ended.
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