Tigers’ Justin Verlander exits game in early with shoulder injury
It appears as though another Tigers pitcher may be out for the foreseeable future that, however has not been officially confirmed yet. What has been confirmed is that when Justin Verlander was forced to leave the Tigers’ game during the second inning it was due to soreness in his right shoulder.
Verlander hasn’t been having the best year for being the great Justin Verlander who won the Cy Young Award in 2012 but he hasn’t been terrible. However, this sudden shoulder soreness might explain a lot of the reason his ERA is 4.57 and has a 10-10 record. He left the game having given up five runs (four earned) on four hits, two walks and two errors.
The Tigers desperately needed Verlander to go deep into the game but that did not happen, he barely made it through the first inning. The Tigers lost a heartbreaking game Sunday night to the Baltimore Orioles in 19 innings. They used up most of their pitchers and were hoping for a long start from Verlander.
Even though it appeared, at one point, that fellow starting pitcher Max Scherzer was going to pinch hit for Verlander in the top of the second it didn’t happen.Verlander managed to help atone for the runs he gave up by putting down a successful sacrifice bunt to move the runners over.
The Tigers are in the midst of an interleague series against the National League Central Pittsburgh Pirates which is why he was batting in the first place.
Verlander, however, did not come out to pitch the bottom of the second. Justin Miller, who was called up from Triple-A just prior to the Monday’s game took over for the former Cy Young Award winner.
Verlander will be evaluated Tuesday but if the news is bad then the Tigers could be in real trouble. Over the weekend starter Anibal Sanchez who led the league in ERA last season (2.65) and reliever Joakim Soria were both added to the disabled list. With the Royals on their tails for first place in the A.L. Central the Tigers need to be in top form, not having two of their aces on the DL.