Verlander Strong in Last Spring Outing

Justin Verlander looked great in his last outing before opening day, April 5 against Boston. He had all of his pitches working, and only allowed one run on four hits. Yet, he struck out five in 6 innings of work, and didn’t walk a single hitter. The entire arsenal was available for Verlander today, as he used his two-seam and four-seam fastball, his curve, slider, and unhittable changeup. The typically modest Verlander, when asked about his performance stated

"Curveball wasn’t great, everything else was all right. Fastball control got a little bit better. Changeup was pretty good. Slider got a little better."

Verlander finished up the spring with an ERA of 2.03, picking up where he left off from the 2011 campaign. He also only walked three batters in 26.2 IP, and struck out 25 hitters, while allowing 22 hits. Those stats look suspiciously similar to Justin’s 2011 spring, where h pitched 28 innings, allowed 21 hits, 3 walks, and accrued 23 strikeouts. It seems as if Verlander’s offseason strategy, which entitled resting until January, has worked out thus far. Hopefully for Tigers fans, his spring performance will carry over to the regular season.