Justin Verlander isn’t fooling anyone right now, and you hope he isn’t fooling himself, Bob Wojnowski writes in the Detroit News after the Kansas City Royals hammered the Tigers' one-time ace Monday night.
A troubling trend has become something more, and the Tigers have a problem without a clear solution.
This goes deeper than their awful display in an 11-8 loss to the Royals Monday night. Their division lead is down to a half-game, and their once-feared starter is as down as he’s ever been. The Tigers can’t overreact to one ugly loss, but Verlander has to find a way to react better to his struggles.
Not much is working, and if Verlander needs a break to figure it out, or a lengthy session with pitching coach Jeff Jones, he should do it. Whatever adjustments he’s making aren’t getting results, as he staggers through the worst stretch of a renowned career. This isn’t about being a dominant workhorse right now, maybe not for the foreseeable future. Verlander (6-7, 4.98 ERA) has to get back to being serviceable first, and obviously thinks he can. I’ve always thought he could regain form, but the longer this goes, the more dangerous it gets.
“It’s probably the most frustrating point in my career,” Verlander said. “I gotta work through it. It’s easy to look at things and say there weren’t a lot of hard-hit balls. But it seems to be a running trend, so I need to make better pitches.”
