Verlander’s No Hitter Against The Jays

Mar. 5, 2012; Lakeland, FL, USA; Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Justin Verlander during the game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Joker Marchant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Weber-USA TODAY SportsJustin Verlander makes his first start tonight against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre since he no hit them there May 7th 2011.

Verlander went on to win the Cy Young and MVP that season.

Many people felt that start gave Verlander momentum for the rest of the season.

I remember watching that game and being impressed because you know it was a no hitter.

But then long after I decided to watch highlights of that no hitter on the internet.

And I couldn’t help but notice the Blue Jays lineup that day.

If you think the Jays injury riddled lineups they’ve had to deal with the last few days or in the last year and a half have been ugly look at the lineup Verlander no hit.

Yunel Escobar
Corey Patterson
Juan Rivera
Adam Lind
J.P. Arencibia
Edwin Encarnacion
David Cooper
John Mcdonald
Rajai Davis

If memory serves me correctly Lind had to leave after 1 or 2 at bats with an injury and was replaced by Mike McCoy lol.

There’s not an elite starting pitcher that wouldn’t throw at least a complete game against that lineup when there on.

Yunel Escobar is the only legit big league starting player in that entire lineup!

Adam Lind was old Adam Lind. But like I said earlier he even got replaced by Mike McCoy after 1 or 2 bats.

Arencibia is Arencibia, although he did draw an 11 – 14(not sure) pitch walk against Verlander to break up Verlander’s perfect game, if you can believe that! If he saw that many pitches in at bat today I’d probably assume he just fouled off a lot of should be ball 4’s.

Encarnacion was still nobody at the time as you could probably tell by him hitting 6th and having terrible hitters ahead of him. Encarnacion didn’t hit his first homerun that season until the start of May.

And Patterson, Rivera, Cooper, McDonald, Rajai, McCoy all had no business being in any big league starting lineup.

Maybe if Bautista and Aaron Hill are in the lineup Verlander still gets the no hitter but that’s anybody’s guess.

It’s always annoying seeing your team lose because it isn’t fully healthy or for whatever reason don’t have a full lineup. You can’t help but think how different the game could have been if everyone was in there.

You’ve definitely felt that if you’ve watched the last 2 losses in the current Tigers series.

When they get no hit without a full lineup it’s even more annoying because I have to hear about Verlander no hitting the Jays for the rest of my life.