Detroit Tigers’ pitching rotation effective in first two games against Oakland Athletics – MLB News
Detroit’s Manager Jim Leyland will be extremely pleased with what he saw from Tigers’ pitching rotation against the Oakland Athletics in first two games of the American League Divisional Series. Using their home condition superbly, Leyland and company edged
past the A’s in both games to take a crucial 2-0 series lead.
Justin Verlander led from the front in series opener, creating all sorts of problems for the A’s batting line-up. Striking-out 11 batters, he raised his game-play with each passing inning. After giving up a solo home-run to Coco Crisp in the first inning,
Verlander pulled things back and held the A’s scoreless in his next six innings.
"Early on was kind of a bit of a battle for me," Verlander said. "Just kind of found my rhythm a little bit and was able to hit my spots better, and I started throwing my breaking ball for strikes a little bit better, too."
"Most good starters, you try to get to them before they get into their rhythm," Oakland manager Bob Melvin said. "He got better as the game went along. A lot of times your best opportunity is early in the game."
Overall, Verlander gave up just one run on three hits in seven effective innings to dent A’s confidence levels. Leyland will be expecting Tigers’ hard throwing ace to continue his good work on his next starts to help Tigers reach the World Series finals.
Starting pitcher Doug Fister produced a magical performance in Game 2 of the series to help Tigers stay in the driving seat. Oakland, who finished the regular season on an extremely aggressively note, had a great chance to put inconsistent Tigers under pressure
but that has not turned out be the case.
Fister pitched with great control and accuracy to make quick work of A’s batting line-up on Sunday, October 7. Relief pitchers Phil Coke and Al Alburquerque combined to pitch a scoreless inning to help the Tigers hold on to their one run lead. It will be
interesting to see if Tigers’ pitchers can continue their superb form in their upcoming games to sweep the A’s.
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