Verlander earns 23rd win as Tigers blank White Sox
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CBSSports.com wire reports
Sep. 13, 2011
CHICAGO -- Get this, Justin Verlander said he felt better Tuesday night than he had in a while.
It sure is a great time to play for the Detroit Tigers.
Verlander pitched seven strong innings to earn his major league-best 23rd win and the Tigers blanked the Chicago White Sox 5-0 for their 11th consecutive victory.
Verlander (23-5) allowed six hits, struck out six and walked two while becoming the first Tiger since Hal Newhouser in 1946 to win 11 consecutive starts and the AL's first 23-game winner since Barry Zito in 2002.
"It's probably best I've felt in the last few starts, the last five or six," Verlander said. "I really felt like I was getting back that rhythm I've been trying to find for a while."
That's a scary statement for the rest of the American League.
Verlander improved to 11-0 with a 2.51 ERA since his last loss on July 15 in Chicago, his only defeat in 15 decisions against AL Central opponents this season.
"He's the best pitcher I've ever had," manager Jim Leyland said. "I'll leave it at that."
Victor Martinez hit a three-run homer for AL Central-leading Detroit, buoyed by its longest winning streak since September 1968. Miguel Cabrera had two doubles, walked twice and scored two runs.
"[Martinez's homer] allowed me to go out there and be aggressive," Verlander said. "That's probably the reason I was able to go seven innings."
Gavin Floyd (12-11) gave up four runs and four hits in 5 1/3 innings, falling to 6-2 with a 3.68 ERA in 17 career starts against Detroit.
Brent Morel doubled and walked twice for Chicago. Alex Rios had three singles.
"When you face a pitcher of that caliber you've got to get it done before he starts to make his pitch," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "He throws every pitch in any count. The guy throws 98 and he'll throw you a 3-2 breaking ball. I don't think you can do much about that."
Detroit has won five straight against the White Sox and reduced its magic number to win the Central to four over Cleveland. The Tigers have outscored Chicago 54-15 during the streak.
"I've said all year that we weren't playing our best baseball," Verlander said. "You look at the talent around this room, if everybody gets rolling it's going to be tough to beat us. This last couple of weeks, it's been an example of that."
Cabrera doubled and scored in the second, and the Tigers added three more in the sixth. With one out and a runner on third, Cabrera was intentionally walked before Martinez sent a 3-2 pitch over the Detroit bullpen in right.
Martinez battled Floyd for nine pitches, fouling off five, before going deep in the game's most important at-bat.
"Terrific at-bat, it really was," Leyland said. "It was a terrific at-bat and he got one and didn't miss it."
Floyd walked the next two batters and threw a wild pitch before being pulled after 98 pitches.
For the second straight start, Verlander allowed a number of baserunners and foul balls early in the game to drive up his pitch count, but settled down to pitch through the seventh. He has gone at least six innings and thrown at least 104 pitches in each of his 32 starts this season.
"Being a power pitcher, foul balls come with the territory," Verlander said. "It's going to happen. Sometimes, your pitch count is going to creep up a little bit. Once we got a little bit more of a lead, I was able to calm back down and go seven innings."
The 6-foot-5 right-hander, a front-runner for the AL Cy Young Award, worked out of jams in three of the first four innings. He got Dayan Viciedo on an around-the-horn double play with runners on the corners and one out in the first, then got Gordon Beckham to fly out with two on to end the second.
Verlander also struck out Beckham looking with a curveball with two outs and the bases loaded in the fourth.
"He threw a couple of unhittable pitches," Leyland said.
The White Sox were 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position in the game, dropping to 5 for 45 in those situations over their last five games.
The Tigers have won 21 of their last 25 games.
"It's not easy," Leyland said. "It never gets easy. It's hard to do. We've been on a nice run and hopefully we can keep it going."
Notes
The annual Roberto Clemente Award nominees were announced on Tuesday. Verlander and Chicago's Juan Pierre were among the entrants for the award, which recognizes players for positive contributions both on and off the field. The Tigers and White Sox wrap up their series on Wednesday afternoon, with Detroit's Brad Penny facing Dylan Axelrod. The 25-year-old Axelrod will be making his second big-league appearance and first start.
Tiger's junking schedules, accept physical boundaries
It was something of a running gag between the world's most famous golfer and perhaps the game's most notable dad.
Only half in jest, Tiger Woods has joked numerous times over the years that his late father, Earl, often used to call him a "slow learner."
You know the type: hard head meets cement wall. Neither wants to give ground. Dents and gouges ensue.
Being selectively, cinder-block obstinate has generally worked pretty well for the former world no.. 1. He ignored the advice of caddies and executed the hero shot at times, yet made some cats self-destructive moves in his personal life. More than once, he ignored the sage counsel of guys in white lab coats and stethoscopes.
Regarding the latter, he once limped out of a doctor's office in 2008 after two fractures had been diagnosed left shredded in his leg, where there wasn't much cartilage or ligament structure to be found, and announced that he not only was going to play in the U.S. open, he was going to win.
Across any social or sporting spectrum you'd care to name, Woods as a professional has not often heard the word "no", and even less frequently has chosen to listen.
Until now.
Still paying the price from on iffy decision to participate in may at the players Championship, when he quit after nine ugly holes, Woods said Tuesday that he'll sit on the sideline for as long as it takes until his ailing left leg completely heals.
No. more running yellow lights, much less punching the gas to speed through red ones. After left leg 16 years of pushing the limits of his, which bears the scars of four surgeries, Woods finally is pulling back while he still has a leg to stand on. Hey, sometimes clichés fit.
"I'm setting no timetable," Woods said of his indefinite return. "Which is different for me."
Different? More like heretical. Ever since he turned pro in mid-1996 and won twice before year's end, Woods has been the spoon, not the broth. After forcing the issue too many times to mention with his leg, the wear and tear on his wheel is now as comprehensive and substantial, he doesn't have much choice but to cede to the medical experts.
From speeding to heeding, Woods hasn't his a full golf shot since he bailed out of TPC Sawgrass after nine holes on May 12, his knee sprain and Achilles barking at him yet again, to injury he first exacerbated at the masters a month earlier.
"In retrospect, I probably came back too early at the players," he said. "I pushed it too hard and hurt myself." "I'm being smarter this time."
It kick hasn't been easy to back and chill. The golf world is proceeding at a breakneck pace, sucking past him while he sits on the wrong side of the ropes. Woods watched 22-year-old Rory McIlroy obliterate several U.S. open scoring records two weeks ago - including several marks Woods held - and has been forced to bite his tongue and bide his time.
'I'm being smarter this time,' says Tiger Woods Tuesday. (AP) The guy who much of his adult life lived on the edge without benefit of a seatbelt or precautionary prophylactics of any sort - skydiving, deep sea diving and making complete ruination of his personal life and public persona - is finally listening to somebody other than the guy staring back in the mirror.
Maybe now they can put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
"I'm 35, not 65," Woods said, flashing his familiar defiance. "I still got some years ahead of me." Golf is unlike any other sport. [Tom] Watson almost won [a major] at what, 59?
"I want to play this game for as long as I want to." "I still feel like my best years are ahead of me."
He had me until the last part, but why pick at nits? At least the guy is making concessions to age. For his first 16 years as a pro, the notion of compromise for Woods was akin to flipping a coin and calling out, "heads I win, tails you lose."
No. longer on crutches or wearing a protective boot on his left foot, he's the tournament host this week in suburban Philadelphia, where his charity is running the tour's AT & T national event. Woods, who has labored for years just to get a goatee to grow in properly, showed up in the public eye for the first time in three weeks with something approaching a full beard on his mug.
Looking a little older, sounding a lot wiser.
The guy won 14 majors by being headquarters strong, immovable and determined. To win a few more he'll need to be more practical, sensible and pragmatic. At this point, he's got little to loose except some pain and suffering, because he hasn't won on the PGA Tour in nearly 21 months, anyway. No more trying to tough it out, like he did at the player, where he shot 42 for nine holes and what gone before lunch which served on the first day.
Woods all but jumped out of his chair and said, "A man has to learn his limitations," all Clint Eastwood-like. Minus the snarl and sneer.
"I have played in pain before, I have played injured and I have played through it," he said. "I have been very successful at it there have been number of years when I have been hurt more than people could possibly understand, and I have played and I have won."
"I just felt like it what good enough to give it a go, and I did, and I hurt myself." I have pushed myself enough times throughout the years and I keep kind of resetting myself, setting myself back... I felt this wasn't anywhere near that [level], but I hurt myself again.
"It's time to actually have a different approach." "It's time."
At this point, there's no sense rushing back, anyway. Woods earlier this month missed the U.S. open for the first time since 1994. The day after it ended, Woods dropped two spots in the world ranking to no.. 17, where he still sits. Sits probably being the operative word here, given his condition.
That figure represents his lowest ranking since the week of Jan. 26, 1997, which began with him at no.. 22. He finished T2 at Pebble Beach that weekend and jumped to 14th, and hadn't been out of the top 15 in nearly 14 1/2 years since.
Put in another jarring context, that what 68 PGA Tour victories and 14 majors ago. The British Open begins in exactly 16 days. Woods used to fly to the English Isles a week early to prepare for the season's third major. Now it's anybody's guess as to when, or if, he'll hop in the saddle at all.
Woods hasn't done much but his doctor-prescribed gym rehab work and a few putts since his WD roll from the Sawgrass event. Well, unless you count watching Dora the Explorer cartoon with his two kids, the sing-song theme caroming around his idle head.
"That song is brutal," he laughed.
Woods, clearly, is no longer a kid himself, and no longer can afford to act like one. Once 10 feet tall, Kevlar coated and impervious to all, he has played 316 holes on the PGA Tour in six months, finishing only four 72-hole events in all. If that pitiable tally doesn't change for a while, then so be it.
Like that annoying ditty from his kids' Nickelodeon cartoon series, Woods can hear the music.
More importantly, he's finally facing it, too.
