ST. PETERSBURG -- Justin Verlander has broken a lot of bats in his career. A hitter breaking his own bat in reaction to a pitch was a new one.
A year after Verlander made a statement here with eight dominant innings to start his second-half resurgence, the two pieces of Oswaldo Arcia's bat -- snapped over his knee after he fanned on one of Verlander's high fastballs -- was a decent statement of Verlander's outing.
"I don't know if I've seen that before," Verlander admitted after the Tigers' 3-2 win over the Rays on Saturday moved Detroit five games over .