A little over five years ago, Justin Verlander broke onto the scene and somewhat surprisingly made the 2006 team as the Tigers broke camp after a couple of spot starts the year before in 2005.  Since then he’s established himself as a bona fide ace and he hit a major milestone yesterday with his 1,000 strikeout.  He needed only 1,100 1/3 innings to do it and while Verlander is still only 28, he’s getting into some select company.

You wouldn’t think 1,000 strikeouts for the same team would be a lot but 1,000 on the nose puts him tied for 14th with Joe Coleman.  With 100 more strikeouts, he’ll be in the top ten.  Mickey Lolich is the lone Tiger with more then 2,000 strikeouts with 2,679 and Jack Morris just missed the mark with 1,980.  In contrast, his 85 wins puts him at 24th all time on the Tiger list.

The Tigers once again evened their record to 10-10.  It’s bizarro world this year because if you had put a gun to my head and asked me what order the teams in AL Central would finish, I would have probably chosen the exact opposite of how it is right now.  Fortunately there’s 142 games still for the team to get back on track.

The Tigers will see a familiar face this afternoon when the take on the White Sox.  Brad Penny tries to right the ship and the Tigers will face Edwin Jackson.

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