An awakening?

Tigers 6, White Sox 1

Justin Verlander (32 GS, 206 IP, 4.54 ERA, 3.74 FIP, 3.4 fWAR), in his final outing of the regular season, showed up to stake his claim in the postseason rotation with 8 innings of 7 hit, 1 run, 0 walk, and 6 strikeout baseball. He allowed some base runners but he pitched like he was gearing up for a pennant run rather than a long walk to the bullpen. The bats took a while to get going but Sale hit VMart and the Tigers pushed a run across in the 6th before unloading in the 7th and 8th inning to set up a clean 9th from Soria, who of course, only pitched because the save situation vanished. The win drops the magic number to 4 with four left against Minnesota. Max Scherzer (32 GS, 214.1 IP, 3.19 ERA, 2.86 FIP, 5.4 fWAR) gets the call.

The Moment: Verlander pumps his first after finishing the 8th, and really, a very challenging year.