Key stat: 1-for-16. The Tigers hit that with runners in scoring position.
That pretty much meant the second key stat -- Justin Verlander pitched eight innings, struck out eight and allowed just two runs -- went to waste.
1-for-16? Ay yi yi.That's a .063 average. You'd think they'd accidentally have more success than that.
The one hit was Johnny Damon's in the ninth inning to drive in the game-tying run. Earlier, the only way Detroit could score was a solo shot by Miguel Cabrera.
The Blue Jays won the game off Phil Coke in the 11th inning. Coke, you might recall, is battling a dead arm. He took a few days off earlier in the week to do a little rehab work on it. He described it for MLB.com:
Coke described the soreness as weakness in the back side of his shoulder.
"It's just dead arm," Coke said, "and it's hard to describe. It's almost like a charley horse, but it's like somebody gives you a charley horse with their knee to back of your shoulder at high velocity. It's something you have to give time to let it recuperate."
He struck the first batter out before giving up a walk and two hits.
Verlander had a quietly solid game. The Tigers' starting pitchers continue to roll out quality start after quality start.
Of course, Jeremy Bonderman was scratched from tomorrow's game. In his place will be Alfredo Figaro. Hopefully the Opera Man can gather some of the success he had in Triple-A and translate it to the majors better than he did in past appearances, or else that quality start streak will end at eight.