Brewers Have No-chance in No-no by Verlander

Armed with a blistering fastball and a knee-buckling curveball, Detroit Tigers right-hander Jason Verlander tossed the season's second no-hitter and just the sixth in the storied history of the franchise.

In all, Verlander struck out 12 in the no-hit effort, walking 4 in the process. He lowered his ERA to 2.79, while raising his record to 7-2.

According to ESPN, the 12 strikeouts are a career high for Verlander.

The crowd stood as one as Verlander trotted to the mound for the ninth; no one sat down until long after the final out was recorded. As the final out was recorded, right-fielder Magglio Ordonez clutched the ball in his mitt and raised his arm to the sky. Verlander turned to meet catcher Ivan Rodriguez, and the two met in a huge bearhug on the mound. Within seconds, Verlander was engulfed by teammates jumping around as if they had just won a playoff series.

According to Verlander after the game, "That ninth inning was amazing. It was the best thing that ever happened to me."

The last Detroit Tigers no-hitter was thrown by Jack Morris in April of 1984, when he defeated the Chicago White Sox 4-0. It was the start of a great season for Morris, as he won 19 games and posted a 3.60 ERA en route to the World Series championship.

Verlander only threw 73 of his 112 pitches for strikes, so he wasn't terribly sharp, but his curveball was extremely tight and dropping out of the strike zone. His fastball was still being clocked at over 100 miles per hour in the 9^th inning, when he struck out Craig Counsell and Tony Graffanino before enducing the final flyball out by J.J. Hardy. Graffanino, in fact, struck out all four times he faced Verlander on the evening.

It was the second no-hitter of the season, the first one coming on the left arm of Chicago White Sox ace Mark Buehrle on April 18^th. There have been 3 no-hitters since last September, after no one had thrown once since 2004.

Jeff Suppan took the loss for the Brewers, pitching a solid 6 1/3 innings of 4 run ball, but stood no chance against the electric stuff of Verlander. Brandon Inge provided all of the offense that his pitcher would need, delivering a 2-run homer in the 3^rd inning.