Tigers' Verlander 0-4 in last 7 starts vs. Indians
It's been a little more than two years since Detroit's Justin Verlander earned a victory against the Cleveland Indians.
The Tigers right-hander looks to change that Friday night when he tries to avoid a fifth straight losing decision to the visiting Indians.
Verlander's 18 wins over the Indians (6-7) are tied for his second-most against any opponent, but he is 0-4 with a 5.19 ERA in seven starts since beating them at home April 17, 2014. The former AL Cy Young Award winner also dropped his last two outings against Cleveland last season.
He last lost three consecutive starts to the Indians in 2008.
Verlander (1-1, 7.16 ERA), though, followed a rough seven-run, 10-hit allowance over 4 1/3 innings of a 7-4 loss to Pittsburgh on April 11 by giving up three runs on two first-inning homers and lasting six in Saturday's 5-3 win at Houston.
"With our offense, I give up three early, but you still know if you settle down, it gives us a chance to win," Verlander said told MLB's official website.
The Tigers (8-6) have lost three of four since that victory, and were held to five hits in Thursday's 4-0 defeat at Kansas City.
Ian Kinsler had two of those hits but Miguel Cabrera went 0 for 4, and is 2 for 18 in the last four games. Justin Upton is 2 for 21 with 10 strikeouts in the last five.
Detroit hardly made a dent offensively the last time it faced Josh Tomlin on Sept 4, when he allowed a run, four hits and struck out six in a complete-game 8-1 victory at Comerica Park.
After inclement weather delayed the start to his 2016, Tomlin gave up a solo homer, three other his and struck out six without a walk in five innings of a 7-5 victory over the New York Mets on Saturday. The right-hander left that contest due cramping in his hamstring, but knew it would not be a major concern going forward.
"I don't know if it was just the adrenaline of not pitching for that long," he said. "My hamstring kept grabbing at me. I knew it wasn't anything serious like a pull. It was just cramping up on me when I followed through."
Cabrera and Kinsler are a combined 10 for 27 with three doubles against Tomlin, but Victor Martinez is 1 for 13. That one hit left the park.
Though the Indians scored three more runs Thursday than in their previous three contests, they fell 10-7 to Seattle in 10 innings. Rajai Davis hit a three-run homer and Mike Napoli had a tying two-run shot in the eighth as Cleveland overcame an early 5-0 deficit but lost for the fourth time in six games.
"It's a hard game to win, but it would have been a great game to win,'' Indians manager Terry Francona said. ''We kept coming."
Napoli is batting .310 with two homers in 29 at-bats against Verlander. Davis, though, is 2 for 13 and Jason Kipnis is 4 for 42 with 14 strikeouts against him.
A free agent acquisition in January, Davis will face Detroit for the first time after spending the previous two seasons there.
