DETROIT _ Justin Verlander has been sick of it. The losing. The bad baseball. The feeling this Detroit Tigers team is going nowhere and he can't do anything about it _ not even with shut down pitching every five days.
But Sunday afternoon at Comerica Park, there was a little more on his plate than the "self-motivation" he talked about earlier in the week in Texas. There was the Los Angeles Dodgers, the best team in baseball, a team that opted to trade for right-hander Yu Darvish a few weeks earlier instead.
Verlander did not disappoint, throwing his best game of the season in an improbable 6-1 win over the Dodgers. He threw an outstanding fastball from the early innings on, sitting in the mid-90 mph range and overpowering his opponents.
He took a no-hitter into the sixth inning _ dueling with Los Angeles righty Kenta Maeda, who was perfect through five innings _ before longtime former teammate Curtis Granderson broke up the bid with a solo home run off the foul pole in leftfield.
The Granderson home run _ his first with the Dodgers (87-35) after joining the team on Saturday _ was but a small speed bump. Verlander retired seven of the final eight men he faced for a stellar eight-inning performance.
Immediately after allowing the Granderson home run, the Tigers offense responded. John Hicks delivered a leadoff single to break-up Maeda's perfect game and Andrew Romine doubled. Dixon Machado then doubled inside third base and into the left-field corner to give the Tigers a lead they would not relinquish. Two batters later, Justin Upton clanked a pitch off the left-field foul pole, hitting his 26th home run of the season.
The Tigers further insured their lead with a two-run double from Miguel Cabrera in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Verlander, though, was the star.
After a hiccup in Texas earlier in the week, he remained dominant after the All-Star break, allowing two hits over eight innings. He walked one batter and struck out nine.
It was another good moment for the Tigers (54-69), however fleeting, as they beat the best team in baseball, avoided a sweep and ended a six-game losing streak.
