Detroit Tigers 12 vs. Cleveland Indians 3 Thursday, July 5

The Tigers take two out of three against the Indians and get the biggest win of the season so far as Justin Verlander outpitches CC Sabathia and then some in a 12-3 Detroit rout. 

Some thoughts that cropped up over the course of the afternoon:

CC Sabathia is the first Indians pitcher since Gaylord Perry in 1974 to have 12 wins before July 1.  Perry, 14-1 on July 1, 1974, went 7-12 the rest of the way to finish at 21-13 for a team that went 77-85.

I’ll say this for the Cleveland Indians: when you have a four run lead on them (7-3 in this case) with nine outs to get, you still feel like you need more runs. 

The Tigers must have felt the same way.  They have five in and are still batting in the sixth as I write.  It’s a nine run lead with nine outs to get now and that brings me to a baseball maxim: When you lead by as many or more runs that the number of outs you still have to get to end the game, you are in pretty good shape. 

CC lasted only four innings today, allowing seven runs.  Today is thus his shortest outing of the season, and his most runs allowed in any 2007 start. 

With the win, the Tigers move back to within one game of the first-place Indians in the AL Central division, two games ahead of Seattle in the Wild Card standings.  Seattle is at Oakland at 10:05 EDT tonight.

Boston is at Detroit tomorrow.  The Indians are at Toronto.