By now, pretty much every Tigers fan has seen the internet meme, a photo of Justin Verlander with his intense pitching face and the caption, "Calm down, I got this."
Well, cleaned up for language, it says that.
Sure enough, just like last year's American Leage division series Game 5 in Oakland, Verlander had "it" in a 3-0 victory.
Verlander had everything -- all of his pitches -- in another dominating performance, keeping the Athletics off the board for eight innings.
In fact, Verlander had a perfect game until he walked Josh Reddick with one out in the sixth and kept the no-hitter until Yoenis Cespedes smacked a two-out single up the middle in the seventh.
"Justin rises to the occasion," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said in the postgame interview room. "He was locked in. I normally stay out of his way, but I can usually tell by the look on his face and his demeanor prior to a game when he's zeroed in and locked in. And he was locked in."
Verlander outdueled rookie Sonny Gray this time, allowing just two hits, walking one and striking out 10.
According to ESPN Stats and Info, Verlander is the first pitcher in major-league history to allow two hits or fewer in at least eight innings in a winner-take-all playoff game.
"Not the best (start) ever, but considering the circumstances, yeah," Verlander told TBS' David Aldridge on the field after the game. "It felt good out there.
"It's the first time in a while, my change-up's been really good. Obviously, in this lineup with a bunch of left-handed hitters, that was a big pitch for me."
Perhaps the only surprising thing was that Verlander didn't finish the game, which he did in last year's Game 5. He had thrown only 111 pitches through eight innings.
"We checked with him, he was really tired after the eighth," Leyland said. "He felt like he could probably go out but couldn't get out of a jam.
"I said, 'Well, I'm not doing that to my closer. I'm gonna give him some leeway and you're done.' He was good about it. It was the right move, whether it worked or not."
It worked because of one of the Tigers' other superstars, Miguel Cabrera.
In the fouth inning, after Torii Hunter got the first hit of the game, Cabrera came up and hit his first homer of the series, giving the Tigers and Verlander a 2-0 lead.
"Verlander throw an unbelievable game and he's the man," Cabrera told Aldridge. "He's one of the best pitchers in the league right now.
"He came in and pitched eight strong innings and give us the chance to win."
The Elias Sports Bureau said Verlander's 30 consecutive scoreless postseason innings against the A's are a record for one pitcher against one team. The previous record was held by the New York Giants' Christy Mathewson, who had 28 scoreless innings against the Athletics from 1905-11.
Verlander joined some elite company -- Josh Beckett, Tim Lincecum, Nolan Ryan, Ed Walsh, and Cliff Lee -- with a postseason start of eight or more innings, two or fewer hits, 10 or more strikeouts, and one walk or fewer.
Speaking of elite company, Verlander is the second pitcher in MLB history with 10 or more strikeouts and zero runs allowed in back-to-back postseason games.
The other? Sandy Koufax in 1965.
"He pitched so well with his fastball," Max Scherzer told FOX Sports Detroit's John Keating on the postgame show. "It had great life on it. Early in the game, that's what he was featuring.
"Obviously, later in the game, that's when he started bringing out his off-speed stuff. That stuff is so nasty, they couldn't hit it. They kept swinging at it.
"What a start. Unbelievable. That's what he does. That's why he's the best pitcher -- he goes out and does stuff like that."
The odd thing is, Verlander didn't do a whole lot of it during the regular season.
He wasn't terrible -- going 13-12 with a 3.46 ERA and 1.31 WHIP -- but he wasn't in the Cy Young conversation like he normally is.
But Verlander won the Cy Young and MVP for his 24-5 record, 2.40 ERA and 0.92 WHIP in 2011 and then went 2-1 with a 5.31 ERA and 1.43 WHIP in the playoffs that year.
So perhaps Verlander is going to reverse those numbers this year.
"He was vintage," Tigers president and general manager Dave Dombrowski told Keating. "There's a guy that's one of the best in the game, stepping up in a very big moment and getting it done. He really was tremendous.
"He maybe hasn't had the year he has had in the past during the regular season, although he's been very good. But if you pitch well in the postseason and pitch your club to a championship, it makes up for a lot of things."
