ROADING LOUD: Justin Verlander (center) is bombarded on the mound by Prince Feilder (left) and his Tigers terammates after pitching a complete game shutout in Game 5 of the ALDS to help Detroit advance to the ALCS to face either the Yankees or the Orioles. (Reuters)
OAKLAND — The A’s magic went up against Tigers ace Justin Verlander — and Verlander won.
The Tigers’ all-everything veteran ace starting pitcher threw a complete-game, four-hit shutout that shut down the surging A’s in Game 5 of the ALDS last night. The 6-0 Tigers’ win sends Detroit to the ALCS beginning tomorrow versus the winner of today’s Game 5 between the Yankees and Orioles at the Stadium.
Verlander mixed his pitches with devastating effectiveness. Throwing fastball gas of 96-mph peppered in with a tough change-up and effective curve, Verlander was practically unhittable for the first seven innings and his dominance muted the boisterous Coliseum crowd.
“I think playing here [Oakland] was the toughest [place] I’ve ever played in,” Verlander said. “They made it tough to come here and play and that’s what home field is all about.”
Verlander finished with 11 strikeouts and had many of the A’s batters frozen in the batter’s box on called strike threes.
“Today from the beginning he [Verlander] had it,” Tigers catcher Alex Avila said from a drenched and celebratory Tigers locker room. “He had good location with his fastball and was able to mix in his off-speed stuff for strikes. … It was definitely a very good game on his part.”
Verlander, who won the American League Most Valuable Player and Cy Young awards in 2011, dominated throughout the pressure-packed game, living up to his billing as one of the best big-game pitchers in the majors.
“For me personally, this has got to be right up there. I think this is number one,” Verlander said when asked where this ranks among his best games. “This is win or go home, my team needs me and I was able to go out there and have one of the better performances I’ve had.”
A’s rookie pitcher Jarrod Parker couldn’t match Verlander’s brilliance, giving up four runs in 6 1/3 innings in his second postseason start as a rookie. He was one of five rookies in A’s history to start a postseason game, including three in this series (Tommy Milone and A.J. Griffin). Parker was the losing pitcher in the A’s 3-1 loss in Game 1. He went 6 1/3 innings and gave up two earned runs in that outing.
The Tigers jumped to a 2-0 lead in the third inning. Omar Infante opened with a single, went to second on a wild pitch by Parker and scored on an RBI-double by former Yankee Austin Jackson.
“It felt good to kind of get things started, getting in scoring position for the big guys behind me,” Jackson said. “That’s my job and that’s what I try and do.”
Quintin Berry followed Jackson’s double with a sacrifice bunt to move Jackson to third, who subsequently scored on another wild pitch by Parker.
“They [Detroit] nicked [Parker] up, got a couple of pitches, scored a couple of runs off him early,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “But when Verlander gets on a roll like he was today, especially once he gets into his rhythm, you get into the middle innings and he’s rolling along pretty good, it’s tough to stop him.”
The Tigers’ four-run uprising in the seventh gave them a 6-0 lead they never would relinquish. In the inning, Detroit had five singles, one walk, one hit batsman, and one player reach on an error. Four Tigers players (Jackson, Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder, and Delmon Young) registered RBIs off Anderson and two A’s relievers.
“I think he [Verlander] is a pretty good matchup for anybody when he is right,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. “He was determined. He had a complete-game look in his eyes.”
For the A’s it was truly a magical run, one that ended a little short but with a long standing ovation after the final out by the grateful Coliseum crowd of 36,393 at O.Co Coliseum, most of whom stayed until the final out and chanted “Let’s Go Oakland” as the Tigers celebrated on the field.
“They [A’s Coliseum crowd] were awesome. It was extremely loud out there,” Oakland’s Cliff Pennington said from a moderately upbeat A’s postgame locker-room given the circumstances. “They were definitely the 10th man for us.”