The Detroit Tigers and Oakland Athletics are heading to O.co Coliseum for a winner-take-all game five. Win, and get a chance to play for the American League pennant. Lose, and hit the gym to start preparing for spring training. Oakland's surprise finish atop the AL West has put them in a position to advance in the playoffs, but they will have to go through Justin Verlander to do so.
This might sound familiar.
In a series almost identical to the ALDS match up of 2012, the Tigers and A's are heading to another game five after close games full of strikeouts and defensive lapses have left the series tied at 2-2.
But this season, it's a different Verlander taking the hill.
After winning the AL MVP and Cy Young award in 2011, the stud righty finished second to David Price in the Cy Young race in 2012. In the following season, the decline has been more drastic as Verlander barely sneaked into another All-star game despite finishing the year with an ERA over 3.00 and only 13 wins. Fans around baseball obsessed over velocity and control issues while Verlander stayed calm and finished 2013 strong.
One thing hasn't changed with Verlander: he loves pitching against the Oakland Athletics.d control issues while the 30-year old veteran stayed calm and finished the season strong.
In the 2012 ALDS, the Tigers' ace dominated Oakland hitters to the tune of one run over 16 stellar innings. Verlander struck out three times as many hitters (22) as he allowed hits (seven) in the two games and after serving up a lead-off home run to Coco Crisp in game one, held the opponent scoreless through 16 straight frames.
On Saturday, the playoff dominance continued as Verlander pitched seven scoreless innings to run his Oakland-postseason-shutout streak to 23 innings. He also struck out 11 Oakland hitters for the third straight time he's faced them in the postseason.
Verlander has another, perhaps more important, streak to consider. After taking a tough-luck loss to Seattle on September 
18, he has held opponents off of the scoreboard for 17-straight innings. That means when he takes the hill on Thursday, it will have been over three weeks since the last time a runner crossed home plate against him.
In other words, the most dominant pitcher the AL has seen in decades is returning to form.
As the Detroit offense shows signs of returning to life and the defense continues to struggle, Manager Jim Leyland couldn't ask for a better pitcher than Verlander on the hill. His tendency to strike out so many A's hitters hides defensive weaknesses and the ability to pitch with a lead and avoid the crooked number will maintain pressure on Oakland.
For a team that had multiple chances to close out the Tigers in game four, the Athletics have to be disappointed to return to California on Thursday.
Stepping into the box against a fully-rested Verlander will do little to improve their spirits.
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