Dan Dickerson Recaps Justin Verlander's No-Hitter
Justin Verlander threw the 2nd no-hitter of his career - and the 7th in Tigers history - beating the Blue Jays in Toronto, 9-0. Verlander was perfect through the first seven innings, then walked JP Arencibia in a 12 pitch at-bat with one out in the 8th. Three pitches later, he had a double play to end the inning. In the ninth, he got Dave Cooper on a popup, got John McDonald to ground out to second, then struck out Rajai Davis to end the game. There were several close calls during the game - none closer than a hot shot off the bat of Edwin Encarnacion with two outs in the 5th. Verlander knocked it down, then as the ball trickled toward the third base line, he raced over, bare-handed the ball, and fired a one-hop fastball to Miguel Cabrera, who somehow caught it in his midsection, and got Encarnacion by inches. Davis hit a rocket down the right field line in the sixth inning, which Cabrera grabbed, then in the 7th, Yunel Escobar hit a hard grounder to short, which Jhonny Peralta back-handed on an in-between hop, then threw Escobar out easily at first.
The Tigers staked Verlander to a big early lead - scoring three in the third on a bases loaded walk, a wild pitch and a groundout, then three more in the fourth on a Peralta home run, a Ryan Raburn double, and a two-run home run by Alex Avila, his sixth of the year. The home run chased Blue Jays starter, Ricky Romero. The Tigers added a run in the fifth, and two more in the ninth. Austin Jackson finished the day with three hits - his first three-hit game of the year. Victor Martinez had two RBIs, as did Peralta.
The no-hitter for Verlander was his second - the other coming June 12th, 2007 against Milwaukee in Detroit. In that game, he walked four batters. Today, he walked just one, and ended up facing the minimum 27 batters. Verlander becomes the second Tigers pitcher to throw two no-hitters - Virgil Trucks threw two no-hitters in 1952 - a year when he won just five games total.
Listen below to Alex Avila's 2 run HR
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Listen below to the final call as Justin Verlander gets the no-hitter
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