DETROIT -- It was bad enough losing one game, but to lose a second straight game was unacceptable. You could have bet everything you owned that there wasn't going to be a third straight loss.
Justin Verlander won 24 games last season en route to winning the AL MVP and Cy Young awards. Losing streaks are not part of his vast repertoire.
But after dropping a 5-3 decision in Cleveland and a rain-shortened 4-1 game in Boston, Verlander was fed up.
"I think every start if I don't win, I'm a little bit upset with myself," Verlander said. "Two in a row with big innings, teams stringing together hits, that's not my thing. So I knew something needed to change."
He went to pitching coach Jeff Jones and they reviewed some video of past pitching successes, found a couple of things to tweak and the results showed on Monday night in front of a sellout crowd of 41,381 at Comerica Park.
It wasn't just any opponent either. It was the AL East-leading New York Yankees, against whom Verlander has actually had limited success. He entered the game with a 4-4 record and 4.17 ERA against them.
So all Verlander did Monday was tie a career high with 14 strikeouts, giving up just two unearned runs on eight hits with one walk in eight innings. He threw 132 pitches, 96 for strikes in the Tigers 7-2 victory. The 132 pitches tie his regular-season high, set May 28, 2011, against the Boston Red Sox.
"I felt pretty good, was throwing my curveball for strikes and made some adjustments from my last start," Verlander said. "I really slowed myself down and allowed myself to get in proper position to repeat my mechanics and hit locations with my fastball. Early in the game, I was able to really repeat down and away to some guys and I just hit my spots most of the night."
New Yankee Ichiro Suzuki exemplified the kind of night most of the Yankees had. Suzuki had a hit in each of his first 12 games with them and had not struck out once.
Against Verlander, Suzuki was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts.
"In the eighth inning, he still had a 100-mph fastball,” Suzuki said through an interpreter. "The rest of his pitches are great, too."
Catcher Alex Avila said they used the same type of game plan against Suzuki that they did when he was with the Seattle Mariners.
"Did you see some of those pitches?" Avila asked. "That last curveball he threw him, I don't know too many guys that are hitting that. I had a hard time trying to catch it. He was just flat-out nasty."
Mark Teixeira probably would have liked the night off rather than face the nasty Verlander. He came into the game 3-for-27 (.111) against him and finished Monday night 0-for-4 with three strikeouts.
Verlander's 14 strikeouts are the most by a Tigers pitcher against the Yankees since Jim Bunning had 14 on June 20, 1958. For his career, Verlander now has 1,381 strikeouts, moving him past George Mullin for sixth in Tigers history.
Verlander didn't know about those stats but he did know that the Yankees are not a team that strikes out a lot.
"It's a hard team to strike out just because of how professional every single one of their batters is," Verlander said. "By professional I mean they put up quality at-bats, they don't swing, they don't chase a lot of stuff.
"I was able to establish my breaking ball early in the game and throw a lot of strikes with it, which allowed me to start expanding the zone a little bit. They kind of had to swing at it because I had established I could throw it for a strike when I wanted."
Tigers fans probably breathed a sigh of relief after seeing that performance compared to Verlander's last two games. Kind of like Miguel Cabrera on offense, you expect Verlander to be perfect.
"He’s a great pitcher, but I think sometimes we all get hung up in the fact that they think great pitchers aren’t supposed to lose," manager Jim Leyland said. "They lose. They have a couple games now and then when they’re not at their best. He was terrific (Monday night), no question about it, against a real powerful lineup. From one through nine, it’s a real strong lineup.
"He was vintage Justin, really. I mean, he was really, really good."
After Verlander made an error in the top of the fifth and allowed the Yankees to tie the game at 2, his teammates came right back in the bottom of the inning.
Avila, Jhonny Peralta, Omar Infante and Austin Jackson all singled, with Infante and Jackson getting RBIs, and Andy Dirks hit a sacrifice fly for a 5-2 lead. Verlander didn't need any more, but the Tigers added a couple in the sixth for good measure, driving Yankees starter Ivan Nova out of the game.
"It's always good, especially when Ver's pitching," said Prince Fielder, who had a home run for the game's first run. "He's usually on so if we get him a couple runs, it's usually going to be in our favor."
As dominating as Verlander was against the Yankees, Leyland practically had to stifle a yawn.
"I just don’t get surprised anymore by guys like Fielder and (Miguel) Cabrera and Verlander," Leyland said. "I just don’t get surprised. They’re stars, and stars do big things. He was terrific against a really, really good hitting team, a very powerful team."
