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Roger Mooney

Roger Mooney covers the Tampa Bay Rays for The Tampa Tribune, TBO.com and News Channel 8. He has covered the Rays since their first season in 1998, including 11 years for the Bradenton Herald. Roger has also covered Florida, South Florida and Florida State football, the Bucs and the Lightning.

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Tigers 5, Rays 2: Too much Verlander

Posted Aug 23, 2011 by Roger Mooney

Updated Aug 23, 2011 at 12:27 AM

ROGER MOONEY
ST. PETERSBURG Tigers ace Justin Verlander shut down the Rays on Monday, allowing only a run on three hits over seven innings in a 5-2 victory.

Verlander, the front-runner for the AL Cy Young Award, tied his career-high with his major league-leading 19th victory. The right-hander has won seven-straight start and has allowed one run or less in 12 of his 27 starts.

Verlander also became the fastest Tiger to 19 wins since Mickey Lolich did it in the first 114 games of the 1972 season.

The lone run was a leadoff homer to Matt Joyce. It was only third leadoff homer Verlander allowed during his career.

When asked what makes Verlander so good, Rays manager Joe Maddon said, “He has a definite idea of what he’s doing. He’s not out there throwing. He’s blessed with a very good arm, but he’s also out there pitching.”

Here are some notes from Monday’s game …

—The loss snapped the Rays five-game winning streak and seven-game winning streak at the Trop.

—The Rays had at least one base runner in five of the seven innings Verlander pitched, but Verlander but only Johnny Damon advanced to second and he did it with a sixth-inning double.

—Jeff Niemann’s seven-game winning streak came to end as he suffered his first loss since May 5. It was only the third time in his career Niemann lost while pitching at least seven innings. He’s now 18-3 in those games.

—Joyce was moved to leadoff because Maddon figured that was the only way he would see something good to hit from Verlander. Joyce responded with the leadoff home run.

In two games this season as a leadoff hitter, Joyce is 5-for-8 with two home runs and two RBIs.

Joyce is hitting .406 against the Tigers, his former team. He’s also 6-for-11 with two home runs and five RBIs off Verlander.

—Damon’s double was the 510th of his career, tying him with Rickey Henderson for 46th place on the all-time doubles list.

—In four games against the Rays this season, Tiger catcher Alex Avila has three home runs.