Justin Verlander and Tigers Offense Tag Team in White Sox Beat Down

Tigers 9, White Sox 1 (box)

Even when your team is out of the playoff race, it’s still fun to watch a good old fashioned beat down. The Tigers certainly delivered one at the expense of the hated division rival on Tuesday night.

The scoring started early on for Detroit. Johnny Damon‘s big fly in the first drove in little Will Rhymes to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead. It would end up being all the offense they would need, but they would go on to add seven more runs for good measure.

With a runner (Austin Jackson) on second base and two outs in the fourth inning, the Sox elected to walk Miguel Cabrera intentionally. They would pay for their mistake. Don Kelly, Brennan Boesch, and Jhonny Peralta followed with hits to push across four runs.

Detroit’s scoring would finish up in the eighth inning. Casper Wells and Jhonny Peralta lead off the inning with singles, and Brandon Inge brought them both in with a three-run home run.

But offense wasn’t the only story for this game. Justin Verlander brought his ace stuff, which allowed him to stay out of trouble all evening. He ended up scattering five hits over seven innings while striking out seven batters and only allowing one run to score.

JV tends to cause frustration amongst the fans when he doesn’t display his dominance in a consistent fashion, but he’s quietly turning in a very nice year. 2009 was a ridiculous year for Justin, and he’s not at that level again, but so far this season has easily been the second best of his career. He’s now collected 80 victories on his career, and he looks to be one of the strongest active candidates to achieve the 200+ win milestone.

Detroit is now 4-8 versus the Sox on the season, but with five contests remaining they could make that number look a bit more friendly. There’s no playoff race, but little victories over rivals are still fun in my book.