Verlander Pitches Tigers into First Place at Break

Justin Verlander pitched another strong game today as the The Tigers nipped the Royals 2-1 in the last game before the all-star break.  The Tigers ace had a shutout going until a Brandon Inge throwing error with two outs in the eighth inning allowed an unearned run to score.  Verlander allowed just that one unearned run on six hits and no walks and had nine strikeouts.  The Tigers horse now has gone 38 consecutive games throwing 100 or more pitches.

The table below shows just how dominant Verlander has been over the last six weeks.  In nine starts, he has given up no earned runs four times, one run four times and two runs just once.  In 72 innings, he has a 0.75 ERA, has allowed just 46 hits and has a 74/10 K/BB.  You can't do much better than that.  Without doing any careful research, I'd guess that this might be the best a Tigers pitcher has ever pitched for nine games. 

EDIT:  The research has now been done.

Table 1: Justin Verlander Game Log May 29 - July 10

Date	Team	Result	IP	H	ER	BB	K	ERA
May 29	BOS	W 3-0	7.2	4	0	2	3	0.00
June 4	@CWS	W 4-2	8	7	2	1	7	2.25
June 9	SEA	W 4-1	8	5	1	1	10	1.12
June 14	CLE	W 4-0	9	2	0	1	12	0.00
June 19	@COL	W 9-1	9	4	1	0	5	1.00
June 25	ARI	W 6-0	8	4	0	1	14	0.00
June 30	NYM	W 5-2	7	7	1	2	6	1.29
July 5	@LAA	L 0-1	7.2	7	1	2	8	1.17
July 10	@KC	W 2-1	7.2	6	0	0	9	0.00
Total	9 GS	8-1	72	46	6	10	74	0.75

The win put the Tigers a half game ahead of the Indians heading into the all-star break.  They now get four days off which means that they get to use Verlander again the first game after the break on Friday.  Verlander was named to the American League all-star team but won't pitch because he pitched today.