Detroit Tigers' Justin Verlander continues impressive winning streak, outduels Jarrod Parker – MLB
Justin Verlander produced another magical performance as Detroit Tigers routed the Oakland Athletics 6-0 at O.co Coliseum in Oakland, California on Thursday, October 11 in Game 5 of the American League Division Series.
Verlander, who led the Tigers to a comfortable win in the series opener, started from where he left off. Pitching with great control and accuracy, the hard throwing Tigers’ ace gave up just four hits in nine shut-out innings to grab his second win of the
post-season.
Striking-out 11 batters, Verlander made good use of his fastballs and slider. It was Verlander’s first complete game of the playoffs and it will be interesting to see if he can continue his excellent work in his next starts to lead the Tigers to the World
Series finals.
Oakland’s starter Jarrod Parker took his second straight loss against Verlander, allowing seven hits and four runs while striking six batters. Relief pitchers Jerry Blevins and Evan Scriber combined to pitch two shut-out innings but they could not stop the
Tigers form earning a deserving series victory.
"I don't have anybody better than him," Leyland said. "And if they get to him that much we'll probably be in trouble. I'm not taking him out, I can assure you of that, because I don't have anybody better to bring in."
"We feel like we have guys that can hit the ball out of the ballpark, and that's certainly been a key factor for us,'' A's manager Bob Melvin said before the game.
After both teams failed to score any runs in the first two innings, Austin Jackson doubled to deep left centre in the third inning to put Tigers on the board. Jackson had a great time on the plate. He scored on a wild pitch in the third and added an RBI
single to shallow centre in the seventh.
Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder and Delmon Young all made valuable contributions to help Tigers take an impassable 6-0 lead. A’s should be given credit for forcing the series into the decider after losing first two games but Thursday night belonged to the
Tigers, who made it to the ALCS for the second straight year.
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