More photos » by Charles Rex Arbogast - AP

How good is Justin Verlander this year? Not even his arch-enemies, the Chicago White Sox, can beat him.

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As we said in tonight's GameThread, the White Sox had their chances in the first three games of this series with Armando Galarraga, Jeremy Bonderman, and Dontrelle Willis.  After those guys, the Detroit Tigers bring out the big artillery.  And tonight, Justin Verlander was like one of those giant robot machine gun suits from The Matrix Revolutions, mowing down almost every White Sox hitter that came to the plate.  

Actually, Verlander wasn't quite Mr. Strikeout PItcher tonight.  He had nine strikeouts for the night, averaging one per inning.  But whether it was because Verlander was being more efficient with his pitches or the White Sox were helping him out by taking weak swings, he got several ground ball outs.  As a result, he wasn't gassed out by the fifth or sixth inning and was able to go deep into the ballgame.  (And with a bullpen that used five pitchers last night, not to mention three games in two days, the pitching staff needed the rest.)

Much like Edwin Jackson did last Saturday night against the Angels, Verlander finished off a complete game with authority.  Of the 13 pitches he threw in the ninth inning, only one was below 96 m.p.h.  (Only two were below 97!)  And that was an 83 m.p.h curveball.  No, he didn't strike out the side.  But Verlander did strike out Jim Thome - who homered off him in the seventh inning (and taken him deep six times in his career) - so maybe that should count double.  His final pitch of the game was a 100 m.p.h fastball that blew away Josh Fields. 

At least this time, the Tigers lineup gave Verlander enough runs to make sure that effort wasn't wasted.  It was only two runs (one of which came on a bases-loaded walk by John Danks, who probably would've won on any other night), but they were just enough.

Roar:

We know painfully well that Thome and Jermaine Dye are Tigers Killers.  But could the Tigers have a White Sox Killer in Adam Everett?  He's batted 4-for-8 in this series with four RBIs.  And the run he drove in tonight came on a solo home run.  That was only his second homer of the season.  Guess what?  The Tigers are undefeated when Everett hits the long ball.  Of course, that's only been in two games...

Is this significant, just mildly interesting, or nearly irrelevant?  When Everett drives in a run, Detroit has an 8-3 record.

Comment of the Night:

We have to pick the one that basically established the theme of the night, right?  

Oh JV

Do me.

by Kmann

Click on the link to get the full effect of the thread, though.  It got even better from there.