Kansas CIty, HEY HEY HEY

Last night marked the start of the second series on the road for the Tigers in this 2012 season. Tonights matchup featured the Motor city Blowtorch himself, Justin Verlander and Danny Duffy, no relation to this man.

Verlander is shockingly 0-1 so far this season. Last night he looked to change that, PERMANENTLY.

To begin with, Kaufman Stadium is the one stadium that I want to go to badly out of any in my division.
I grew up a bit at Comiskey and New Comiskey (Mobile Phone Park for you Cubs fans), I despise the Twins and I've conquered Jacobs Field before. I just want to see how absurd and beautiful their Jumbotron is. But I digress.....

After some sleepy batting in Chicago, it was nice to start with a bang. The bang was supplied by none other than Austin Jackson as he lead off with a DEEP homer to left. If you want to restart your browser to make sure you read that correctly, go right ahead. I know this is Captain Obvious talking but imagine of A-Jack can do this all year. Not just homering mind you (DUH of course I'd take it), but getting on base AND homering. He either makes sure Boesch, Cabby or Fielder are in an RBI situation OR he puts the run up himself. Ridiculous!

Now Duffy had 2 men on and the Tigers looked to break this thing open early but a huge double play led to the inning ending with just 1 run on the board. This whole "Double Play" thing is quickly jumping to the top of my "Things I want to punch" list. (Yes smart guy, I know I can't punch a Double Play but c'mon, live a little)

Now it's time for JV to take over. (Cue Alex Gordon Double)

Dang it.

So the Royals manufacture a quick run to tie it but that's all they would get for some time. Verlander just went on to do his thing again. If you are unaware of what that "thing" is, allow me to remind you:

He was straight dealing. He literally walked up to each batter and handed them a card with either a "K" or "Grounder" or "Flyout" on it. No swings were taken, he just stood at home and handed out these cards. Don't believe me? Look it up! (Don't look it up)

Then in the 5th, something odd happened. With a man on, Brandon Inge stepped to the plate. He then proceeded to hit a 2 run homer to center. That odd thing I was talking about was not the homer. The odd thing was how the homer was received. Twitter exploded. Mixed reactions were running wild. The Tigers take the lead and people were up in arms! Almost like they were upset that Inge was the guy to do it!

As a bit of an aside here, there are some players that I don't like. But I don't let that get in the way of the team taking the lead. A lead is a lead is a lead. In any case! The Tigers were now up 3-1.

We now return to our regularly scheduled Pitching performance. (See Previous Photo)

JV would mow down the KC line up, ending up with 8 K's before the 9th. As Mario Impemba would say, "He's in Cruise Control now."

However, the game was starting to follow an eerily similar script. The previous 2 starts for this horse had him pitching 8 strong innings, only to have the game get away. Once by Papa, another by JV's own hand. So we arrive to the bottom of the 9th and here's the MVP taking the mound again.

(Cue Single, a Run, and a Walk)

Dang it.

Coke was getting warm and now Leyland makes the walk. All signs point to JV being done.
Interestingly however, Jim says a few quick words and JV will stay in the game.

(Cue Hit Batter)

DANG IT!!!

Next batter is Alex Gordon and we all know what he did to start the game. One more hit and this game goes to the Royals. Talk about pressure. No seriously, talk about it.

Would this game end up like the previous 2? Would the Cy Young and MVP winner fall victim to some demon preventing him for getting his first win? I'll let the man himself answer that:

Justin Verlander, despite an absurdly high pitch count, just got his 1st win. Leyland was quoted as saying, "He said he felt great. This is your game, I said, I'm not coming out to get you. When you walk off the mound you either Win or Lose but it's your game."

It was a strange start to this season for the MVP, but tonight Justin Verlander sent a 100 mph reminder to the rest of the league: Look out.

And with this win, I unveil the "Verland-o-meter". The entire season for JV will be rated with this meter. The criteria will be the stats, the quality of the game, and how nasty he is. So for last nights matchup, I bestow the following rating:

Remember kids, lay off the high ones.