Justin Verlander’s secret isn’t a secret anymore.
Not with the way the pitches were coming in the upper-80 m.p.h. range, and cutting in on left-handed hitters, away from righties. Not with the way that unaccounted for pitch in Verlander’s repertoire baffled Philadelphia Phillies hitters.
They swung through them, those cutters, over and over again tonight. They looked like the Orioles did a start before and the Rangers did the start before that. They looked overwhelmed.
Verlander kept up the hot hand, dominating the Phillies over eight scoreless innings, Miguel Cabrera kept up his hot hitting, driving in two runs, and the Detroit Tigers won their eighth game in nine tries, 3-0, tonight at Comerica Park.