Indians helpless against Verlander

BY JON PAUL MOROSI
FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER

July 27, 2006

Tigers right-hander Justin Verlander (13-4) struck out eight against the Indians on Wednesday and lowered his ERA to 2.69 for the season. (TONY DEJAK/Associated Press)

CLEVELAND -- Each woozy witness had his own account.

Justin Verlander humbled the Indians through 6 2/3 innings Wednesday in the Tigers' 4-1 win. His 97th, and final, pitch -- a fastball to rookie Joe Inglett -- yielded Cleveland's lone run. He left after allowing five hits and no walks. He had eight strikeouts.

Afterward, Verlander's victims were asked for their version of the events. Most could speak about a strikeout. Jason Michaels, Casey Blake and Ben Broussard (traded to Seattle later Wednesday) whiffed twice. Grady Sizemore and Ramon Vazquez were the only starters spared.

A fastball that climbs to 100 m.p.h. -- as Verlander's did in the sixth against Travis Hafner -- tends to inspire hyperbole.

Inglett: "The ball explodes out of his hand."

Michaels: "Pretty nasty."

Vazquez: "He's got a (Roy) Halladay breaking ball and a fastball that speaks for itself."

Michaels and Vazquez likened Verlander's repertoire to that of Josh Beckett, the hard-throwing World Series hero. Michaels said John Smoltz had a similar fastball while he was closing for the Braves.

Verlander (13-4) has a 2.69 ERA, the best of any season-long starter in the American League. Batters must hope that, by chance, something hittable floats over the plate -- "Anything," Michaels said -- because two-strike counts often elicit a breaking ball that Vazquez described as "dirty."

"With two strikes," Vazquez said, "you have it in the back of your head."

So, hitters are advised to prevent at-bats from reaching that point.

Easier said than done, when considering fouled-off fastballs early in the count represent something of a triumph.

Even when he misses, Verlander is often able to make good pitches at 2-0 and 3-1. "He can fall behind and go right at you," Vazquez said. "He can get you to foul off a couple pitches, and get you back in a pitcher's count."

Perhaps the most impressive part of his performance Wednesday was this: Twice, Sizemore stood on second base with none out. Twice, he did not score. "That," Sizemore pointed out, "shows you how good he is."

Michaels, who followed Sizemore in the lineup, remembered his sixth-inning at-bat. Verlander threw him a fastball. He fouled it off. Then Verlander threw him a curveball. He swung and missed. Michaels took the next two pitches, fouled off a curve and struck out, swinging, on a blurry fastball.

It looked, Michaels said, "a thousand miles an hour." The radar gun read 99.

Still, at the end of his day, there was Verlander, thumping a fist into the pocket of his glove after Inglett's homer. He looked furious. After inflicting so much frustration throughout the day, he was finally left to experience his own.

Briefly.

"The guy knows what he's doing," Inglett said, "and he's only going to get better."