Verlander ends first half with a bang in Tigers victory

In a complete mismatch of a pitching matchup, Verlander dominated the Indians hitters and Ohka got clobbered by the Tigers. For once, what should happen in this crazy game of baseball did happen. Verlander went 7 innings and lowered his ERA to 3.38 by not allowing an ER in the game. He allowed 5 hits and 3 BB and struck out 8 batters. Seay, Ni and Miner combined to finish the last two innings. Clete Thomas was a double short of the cycle, Thames went 4 for 4, and Inge hit 2 HR's in prepping for the Home Run Derby tomorrow night. Post game thoughts...

-After a couple of subpar games by Verlander recently (for him), he responded today with a shutdown-type performance. He only threw first pitch strikes to 13 of 28 batters, and he had three particularly stressful innings with 20+ pitches in the 3rd, 4th and 7th innings. However, he had his curveball, slider and fastball all working today and he ended up overcoming those stressful innings. Besides the 8 K's, he induced 3 groundball outs and 10 flyball outs. Ideally, I would like to see Verlander become even more efficient and lasts longer than 7 innings. I still believe that that will eventunally come as a part of his maturation process. He is a special pitcher who has the peripheral numbers (top 5 in FIP and #1 in K/9) that suggest that his second half might be even better than his first half. Other than Greinke and Halladay, it could be argued that he is having as good of a season as any other starting pitcher in the AL.

-A note on Zach Miner's performance. I guess it is human nature to relax during a 10 run lead and not perform as well as one is capable of. With that said, giving up 3 BB with a 10 run lead is unacceptable. If they hit a home run, fine. But, to allow 3 BB in that situation is hard to fathom. I'm sure he got a stern talking to by Leyland after the game. Seay and Ni did not walk anybody, but the bullpen's collective inability to throw strikes on a consistent basis is becoming worrisome.

-Obviously, the three stars of the day on offense were Clete Thomas, Inge and Thames. Thomas and Thames, in particular, could become interesting stories as the year progresses. With Carlos Guillen on his way back to the big leagues within the next couple of weeks, Thames could find himself in a platoon with Guillen and Thomas currently finds himself in a platoon with Ordonez. Thomas needs to continue to provide good defense in right field, and hit right handers well. Since coming back up from Toledo, he has an OPS of 1.000 and is doing his part. With Ordonez a plus .800 OPS hitter against lefties, the Tigers may have found a solution to the Ordonez problem. Thames, likewise, will probably find himself in a platoon in the DH role with Guillen while both will get spot playing time in LF. Thames has absolutely killed lefties this year with an OPS above 1.000 and has struggled somewhat against right handers. Guillen will be able to spell Thames against righties and Thames should continue to get the playing time against lefties. He's earned it.

-With the Twins beating the White Sox, the Tigers head into the All Star break with a 3.5 game lead on the Sox and a 4 game lead on the Twins. It is certainly looking like a 3 team race at this point in time. This break should do a number of Tigers well, as they look to rest up and start the second half strong with a series against the Yankees starting on Friday.