I Know How This Movie Ends...

...and it doesn't end well.

I'm pretty sure we've all seen this movie before:

2006 - Great year, great team, and got HOT going into the playoffs. World Series comes and they get embarrassed

2009 - Great year, choke the final 10 days, fail to make playoffs in Game 163 at Minnesota

2011 - Great year, unbelievable team, slammed by Texas in ALCS

2012 - Underachieving year until September 15 when they finally pull ahead to win Division. Get HOTT in the playoffs. World Series comes and they get embarrassed.

2013 - Basically in 1st place all year, yet never pulled away and then nearly gave it away in the final two weeks. (Were in sole possession of 1st place since July 3.) September 15 comes and they forget how to hit. Advance to ALCS and still can't hit.

I know how this movie ends.

By the way, will anyone EVER see playoff pitching like we've seen in the last four Tiger games, let alone the ALCS, again? Verlander...One ER in the last 23 IP and the Tigers are 1-2.

Is the glass half-full or half-empty? The Tigers were down 1-2 with game #4 at Detroit in a 5 game series with a hot Oakland. Tigers are down 1-2 with game #4 at Detroit in a 7 game series with a Boston team that can't hit.

100 mph On Pitch 116

Justin Verlander had his fastball working deep into the game last night as he was still throwing 100 mph in the eighth inning. One of these fastballs broke Gordon Beckham's bat. On a check-swing. Video here.

Verlander...

...discusses his All-Star game performance, but not Kate Upton, in the Detroit News.

24

This has to be posted. If someone would have told me in April that Justin Verlander would be going for his 25th (and 13th? straight) win and it would be...at home...against Baltimore...the LAST place team in the world...and home field advantage for the playoffs on the line...I would have bet $10000 on JV and the Tigers. Way to go guys. 25 wins and a LOCK to win the MVP. Now, it cost you home field advantage in the first round and possibly the MVP for JV. Yes, I realize JV gave up 5 runs in the first two innings, but still, that is unacceptable.

?

A question for those of you who are bigger baseball fans than I: Now that Justin Verlander has his 20th win, and before the end of August to boot, should he win the MVP? If not, is there a number of wins he needs to have to be a candidate? Paul Sporer of ESPN has some discussion here. Regarding the argument that a pitcher doesn't play enough to truly deserve the MVP, Sporer observes:

Looking at Verlander’s 216 innings shows that he has pitched 18.6 percent of the Tigers' total innings (1161) while the team’s best offensive player and marginal MVP candidate, Miguel Cabrera, has logged 577 plate appearances, or 11.5 percent of their 5,001 total plate appearances. So who is really making a bigger contribution?

That conclusively settles that argument for me. Any other thoughts from you baseball guys?

9.0-0-0-0-4-12

No, this isn't a post about Lost, that's Verlander's stat line from last night: innings, hits, runs, earned runs, walks, and strikeouts. That's a no-hitter folks, the first for a Tigers' pitcher since Jack Morris in 1984. More from the Detroit News here.