Detroit Tigers humble Cleveland Indians 11-7 – MLB News
Detroit Tigers continued their marvellous winning streak, as they humbled the Cleveland Indians 11-7 at Progress Field in Cleveland, Ohio on Wednesday, May 22, in the finale of their two match series of the 2013
Major League Baseball regular season.
With their win, the Tigers improved their record to 25-19 to close down the gap between themselves and the Indians to just one game at the top of American League Central Division standings table. A lot of credit
should be given to Tigers’ batting lineup for living up to the expectations. Despite having some of the best hitting talent in their lineup, the Tigers have not been able to score runs consistently. Surely, the Tigers will be feeling more confident and enthusiastic
after crushing the Indians in a road series.
Starting pitcher and 2011 American League Most Valuable Player Justin Verlander held his nerves in a high scoring thriller as he allowed ten hits and five runs in five innings to claim his fifth win of the season.
With four losses to his name already, the running season has turned out to be a disaster for the right hander. It will be interesting to see if Verlander can continue the good work on his next appearances to improve his win loss record.
"Every time we would get something going, the rain would come and kind of kill things," third baseman Mark Reynolds said. "It is what it is. There's nothing you can do about Mother Nature."
"I was very much paying attention to the clock," he said. "I was kind of lobbying to Jim during the rain delay. If it was five minutes more, I was done."
"Since I've been here, he's been our horse," Leyland. "He has earned that right. I thought he deserved it."
Relief pitcher Drew Smyly allowed two runs in just one inning of relief but closer Jose Valverde produced another magical performance, pitching the perfect ninth to help the Tigers hold on to their slim lead.
Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez, Don Kelly, Prince Fielder and Omar Infante all made useful contributions to help the Tigers stack up a huge total.
Right now the Tigers Manager Jim Leyland will be extremely satisfied with his team’s performance. After the Tigers were swept by the Los Angeles in 2012 World Series finals, there were rumours that Leyland might
leave Detroit for good but that did not turn out to be the case. Leyland decided to continue working to help his club end their 14 year World Series title drought. Considering the strength of pitching and hitting lineup, it will not be wrong to say that the
Tigers have their best chance of winning the prestigious trophy this year.
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