Tigers 9, Blue Jays 0: Justin Verlander No-Hits The Blue Jays to Punish Me for Bullying Neil

The roof was open today, at least.

And he didn't even make it look that hard. Justin Verlander only struck out four, but there were only maybe a half dozen soundly hit balls all afternoon. It was pretty ridiculous. Coming into today's game, Verlander held a career ERA of 6.68 against the Blue Jays, so it was by no means a given that he would own them at all, let alone so utterly. But own them utterly he did. By the time the eighth rolled around, Verlander was still perfect, and he pretty clearly said "fuck it" (in spirit) and started just whipping it in there, touching 101 MPH on the gun on at least three occasions late in the game. After a twelve-pitch battle against J. P. Arencibia, Verlander finally put a runner on, but the walk was then immediately erased on an inning-ending double play ball from my man E5. The ninth proved to be no biggity (I liked the way he worked it, one might say), so what we have here is not just a no-hitter -- the second of Verlander's career, by the way -- but a no-hitter in which Verlander faced the minimum. Not quite twenty-seven up, twenty-seven down, but as close as you can come. 


This is what I get for being mean to Neil.


KS