SAN DIEGO (AP) — Sometime soon, a baseball will be getting a prominent spot among the trophies on Justin
Verlander’s mantle.
It’s
the ball he hit up the middle for a single in the second inning
Saturday night, the one that will forever shut up his teammates.
Verlander
had the first two hits of his career and recovered from throwing 31
pitches in the first inning to pitch seven strong innings and lead the
Detroit Tigers to a 6-2 victory over the San Diego Padres on Saturday
night.
"It felt great. It’s been a long time and I can finally get all these guys off my back …,"
Verlander said.
Verlander
had been 0 for 26 with 15 strikeouts in his career when he stepped in
against Ian Kennedy in the second inning and singled up the middle. When
the ball came back to Kennedy, he tossed it to a ball boy near the
Padres’ dugout. Home plate umpire Seth Buckminster motioned for the ball
boy to throw it to the Tigers’ dugout.
"I think the Padres and
probably Ian didn’t know that I had never had a hit," Verlander said.
"It’s been nine years in the big leagues now. They probably weren’t
thinking about that but I sure as heck was. I was watching that ball
like a hawk."
The last time Verlander had a hit?
"High school. It’s been a long time," he said.
"I guess I have no more leverage," catcher Alex Avila said. "We’re all happy for him. It
was fun to watch."
Verlander cited a list of times when he came close to getting a hit.
"I
think it’s kind of been an anomaly that I haven’t had one yet," he
said. "I feel like I’ve probably hit five or six hard that have been
caught."
Verlander singled to right in the fourth, although he had to hustle to avoid being thrown out by Chris
Denorfia.
"I
hit it pretty hard, too. It was a bang-bang play but I beat it out,
thank goodness," said Verlander, who eventually scored on Torii Hunter’s
two-run single.
The sight of Verlander (1-1) on the mound at
Petco Park was another reminder of how the Padres flubbed the top pick
in the June 2004 amateur draft. Not wanting to pay a big signing bonus,
the team passed on players such as Jered Weaver, Stephen Drew and
Verlander in favor of local shortstop Matt Bush.
Bush, who signed
for $3 million, never reached the big leagues and had numerous off-field
problems. In December 2012, he was sentenced to four years and three
months in a Florida prison for a drunken driving hit-and-run crash.
Verlander
was taken by the Tigers with the second pick. He has thrown two
no-hitters and came within two outs of a third, won the AL MVP and Cy
Young Award in 2011, was voted AL Rookie of the Year in 2006 and is a
six-time All-Star.
Verlander allowed two runs and eight hits,
struck out eight and walked one. He improved to 2-0 against the Padres,
having also beaten them at Petco Park in 2008.
"He’s a guy who
obviously has that power arm when he needs to," San Diego’s Yonder
Alonso said. "He works his way into the game and if he feels like he’s
in trouble, he’s going to attack. He made some good pitches but we just
missed a lot of guys on base."
The Tigers had plenty of offense
one night after being held to one hit by Andrew Cashner in a 6-0 loss.
Austin Jackson hit a two-run double one batter after Miguel Cabrera was
intentionally walked to load the bases in the ninth; Hunter, who missed
the previous two games with a bruised left knee, hit a two-run single;
and Cabrera and Ian Kinsler each had an RBI double. Rajai Davis scored
three runs.
San Diego got its runs on Jedd Gyorko’s sacrifice fly and Yasmani Grandal’s RBI single.
Kennedy (1-2) allowed four runs and eight hits in six innings. He struck out seven and walked one.
NOTES:
A candidate in the Padres’ in-season contest to find a new public
address announcer committed a big flub in the first inning. As Cabrera,
the two-time AL MVP, walked to the plate, he was announced as Austin
Jackson. Cabrera turned and looked up at the booth. Frank Anthony, the
Padres’ PA announcer since Petco Park opened in 2004, was fired in
January so the team could hold open tryouts as part of the 10th
anniversary of Petco Park. … The series concludes Sunday when reigning
AL Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (0-0, 1.20 ERA) is scheduled to
face Tyson Ross (0-2, 4.35).
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