DETROIT -- There was a silver lining to Detroit's rainy, extra-inning loss Thursday afternoon -- Justin Verlander is fine.
Tigers fans had to be worried when Verlander left the game after seven innings with a blister on his pitching thumb, but both he and Jim Leyland were relatively unconcerned.
"I started noticing it at the end of my last start, and it started to get a little worse after about the fifth today," Verlander said. "After the seventh, it started to get sore, so I talked it over with (pitching coach) Jeff Jones and we came to a joint decision to call it a day.
"I don't want this to turn into something that is an issue in my next start, and the one after that, and ends up dragging on for a month. That's why I got out of there."
Verlander said that he expects to be fine in time for his next start, tentatively scheduled for next Tuesday against Minnesota, and Leyland feels the same way.
"I don't think it will be a problem because they can work wonders with those things these days," Leyland said. "They just put some stuff on it and it hardens right up.
"The only way it would be an issue is if it breaks open, and they can usually prevent that these days."
Verlander allowed two runs, one of which was unearned, in his seven innings. He's 2-2 in five starts despite a 1.95 ERA.
