Despite Shaky Stuff, Verlander Fires Six Shutout Innings
RHP Justin Verlander pitched six messy innings Wednesday night -- but they were messy shutout innings. He only threw a couple of vintage curveballs, his changeup was erratic, the slider was sporadic and his fastball was all over the place. But in the end, Verlander allowed just five hits, none after the third, and stranded seven runners while striking out five. He threw 122 pitches, and 34 of them were fouled off. He had trouble generating swing-and-misses or groundball outs (five). "I kept the ball out of the middle of the plate," Verlander said. "It's OK to make a mistake with your changeup when you make the mistake outside the strike zone. I got outs. I'll take it."
--3B Miguel Cabrera, who leads the AL in batting average (.333) and RBI (130), pulled to within one of home run leadership. Cabrera crushed his 41st homer of the season to lead off the seventh Wednesday night, leaving him one behind Texas OF Josh Hamilton. He went 1-for-3 with two walks. Boston's Carl Yastrzemski was the last Triple Crown winner, in 1967. Crowd chants of "MVP" when he comes to the plate are "nice, but weird," Cabrera said. "I'm trying to focus on my job, which is getting us to first place."
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