Is the AL Central race over? I don't know. I'm not going to concede it until Detroit's magic number is 1 and they still a 5 or 6 game lead. But they again won with an emphatic exclamation point.
Down 4-2 in the 7th after 2 of the 3 hits that Justin Verlander had allowed through 6 innings were Shelley Duncan 2-run home runs, Victor Martinez hit a grand slam on the 1st pitch he saw to punctuate a 5 run inning. All 5 runs came before an out was recorded. It was Victor's 10th home run of the season. He now has 12 RBIs in the last 4 games.
Miguel Cabrera was 2-4 with an RBI. Alex Avila was 2-6 with an RBI double. Wilson Betemit had an RBI double. Don Kelly added an RBI triple in the top of the 9th as an insurance run.
Once again every Tiger starter had a basehit. 10 Tiger hitters had hits, as they piled up 15 hits. It was the 11th time in 13 games and 31st time in the 51 games since the All-Star Break that they've reached double figure hits.
After Phil Coke gave up a 2-run homer to make it a 7-6 lead in the bottom of the 7th, Joaquin Benoit and Jose Valverde slammed the door. Valverde notched his 42nd save of the season tying Todd Jones' single season Tiger record set in 2000.
For Justin Verlander the journey to the Cy Young Award gets closer. Duncan got him twice for a pair of two run shots, but he allowed only 3 hits and struck out 7 in 6 innings. He upped his record to 22-5. Verlander is the first Tiger pitcher to win 22 games in a season since Joe Coleman won 23 in 1973. That was my first baseball season alive.
Verlander also won his 10th consecutive start. The last Tiger to win 10 straight decisions was Jack Morris in 1983. The last Tiger to win 10 straight starts was Hal Newhouser in 1946. Newhouser is in the Hall of Fame.
Since May 1st Verlander is 20-2. When he said in Spring Training that he was working on getting off to a better first half start, he did, even when that 2-3 start to the season made you wonder. I'll take 20-2 since then.
Detroit has now won 16 of their last 20 games.
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