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MINNEAPOLIS -- Justin Verlanders curveball was snapping, Torii Hunters bat was clicking and the Detroit Tigers appeared to be creeping ever closer to locking up their third straight AL Central title. When their bullpen couldnt hold the lead against Minnesotas anemic offence, another chance to reduce their magic number went swirling down the drain. Josmil Pinto hit an RBI single in the 11th inning and the Twins overcame 12 strikeouts by Verlander to beat the Tigers 4-3 on Monday night. The Tigers led 3-0 in the eighth, but Jose Veras gave up RBI doubles to Eduardo Escobar and pinch-hitter Ryan Doumit. Brian Dozier led off the ninth with a tying homer against previously perfect closer Joaquin Benoit. Dozier opened the 11th with a single off Luke Putkonen (1-2) and advanced on a wild pitch. Pinto punched a single to right field to give manager Ron Gardenhire his 998th career victory. Verlander gave up six hits and walked three in six shutout innings for the Tigers, who entered needing two wins -- or one victory and a loss by idle Cleveland -- to lock up the division. "Obviously, its tough," Verlander said. "Were sitting here knocking on the door and every win counts. It was a tough pill to swallow, but thats the lovely thing about baseball. We come out here tomorrow and we have another day and another crack at a win." Anthony Swarzak (3-2) pitched the 11th for the win. Hunter had two doubles, a single and an RBI for Detroit. Miguel Cabrera had two hits and an RBI while moving gingerly on a sore groin that kept him out of Sundays loss to the White Sox. It was a rare stumble for Benoit, who has stabilized the shaky back end of the bullpen since becoming the full-time closer. He had converted 22 straight save chances this season. But the struggles by Veras caused manager Jim Leyland to go to his closer far earlier than he would have liked, and Benoit came on with one out in the eighth to try for a rare five-out save. "I dont even consider that a blown save because youre asking him to do an awful lot," Leyland said. "Hes been absolutely fantastic. Hes a very, very outstanding pitcher." After three straight underwhelming outings by his lofty standards, Verlander was back to his untouchable self against the overmatched Twins. With his curveball bending and his slider biting as well as they ever have, Verlander struck out the side in the second and third -- and the whiffs kept coming. "He looked like his old self," Dozier said. "His breaking ball was really moving and he was punching guys out." Five times Verlander got the Twins looking for strike three, four of them with wicked curveballs that froze the hitters. One of them buckled Chris Parmelees knees for his 10th strikeout of the game in the fourth inning. Verlander topped 200 strikeouts for the fifth straight year. "I think I had the best breaking ball Ive had all year," Verlander said. "It was really sharp. It was good. I was able to go to it when I wanted to and throw it for strikes." The right-hander had been tagged for 10 earned runs in his last three starts, a bothersome little skid as the playoffs approach. He also entered the night with a pedestrian 13-12 record and 3.66 ERA that is ordinary by his standards. Maybe an outing against the meagre Twins offence will be enough to get him back in the groove. It was Verlanders third double-digit strikeout game of the season, and first since he fanned 13 Pirates on May 27. Mike Pelfrey gave up one run on six hits with five strikeouts and three walks in six innings for the Twins. "The math doesnt change," Leyland said. "Somehow weve got to win two games." NOTES: Prince Fielder played in his 500th straight game. ... The Indians open a series against the White Sox in Cleveland on Tuesday. ... Twins OF Oswaldo Arcia was a late scratch when he bruised his right knee after running into the wall while chasing down a fly ball in batting practice. ... The Twins struck out at least 10 times for the 60th time this season. The previous team high was 26 in 2001. ... Tigers RHP Doug Fister (13-9, 3.71 ERA) will take the mound Tuesday night against Twins LHP Scott Diamond (6-11, 5.54). John Jaso Pirates Jersey . The Hall of Fame defenceman told Landsberg that he believes fighting still has a place in todays game, but thinks staged fighting needs be outlawed. Jeff Locke Authentic Jersey . -- Nathan Pancel scored twice as the Sudbury Wolves defeated the North Bay Battalion 4-2 on Saturday in Ontario Hockey League action. http://www.pittsburghpiratesprostore.com/Gregory-P...es-jers ey/ . LOUIS -- St. Willie Stargell Pirates Jersey . The Brazilian goalkeeper signed a loan deal with the Major League Soccer club on Friday as he looks to get playing time ahead of this summers World Cup in his home country. Mark Melancon Jersey .Y. -- Sabres forward Drew Stafford has witnessed plenty of turmoil during his eight seasons in Buffalo.Each week, TSN.ca Fantasy Editor Scott Cullen and NFL Editors Ben Fisher and Mitch Ward discuss three hot fantasy football topics. 1) Which player will come from nowhere to have a huge season like Alfred Morris last year? Cullen: While there arent any late-round rookie runners, Patriots wide receiver Kenbrell Thompkins was undrafted and has been getting a lot of positive publicity in training camp, so maybe Tom Brady could drag Thompkins into being a productive first-year receiver. A better look for players coming from nowhere might be for running backs that are moving into starting roles for the first time. Miamis Lamar Miller, the Jets Bilal Powell, Denvers Ronnie Hillman and St. Louis Daryl Richardson arent necessarily household names -- none of them having rushed for even 500 yards in a season -- but they are at the top of their respective teams depth charts entering the season and if they are productive early, like Morris last season (he had 96 rushing yards and two touchdowns in Week One), that could solidify their role and any back that starts 16 games is going to have a very good chance to rush for 1,000 yards over the course of the entire season. From that group, I prefer Richardson ever-so-slightly over Miller. Fisher: I like Green Bay Packers RB Eddie Lacy. Lacy was arguably a first round talent in the draft this year and joins an explosive offence. The Packers threw pretty much all the time last year, including in the red zone, but preseason reports say with Lacy they should be more inclined to stay on the ground close to the end zone. At 230 pounds he gives the team a legitimate goal line threat. With DuJuan Harris on injured reserve and Johnathan Franklin struggling in the preseason, Lacy will get his touches and get his yards. The question is how much hell score, but hell definitely get more than two (how many Harris and Brandon Jackson, the team co-leaders in rushing TDs, had last year.) Ward: Giovani Bernard. He enters the season behind BenJarvus Green-Ellis on the Bengals depth chart, but Bernard is more skilled than the Law Firm in almost every facet of the game. Gio has great speed, excellent lateral agility and is already building up his goal-line resume with three one-yard touchdowns in the preseason. Bernard likely wont put up Alfred Morris type numbers this season, but behind a very good offensive line in Cincinnati, theres a chance he could explode. I expect him to take over the Bengals backfield sooner than later and be a high-end RB2 by seasons end. 2) Who will have the better sophomore season among Robert Griffin III, Andrew Luck, and Russell Wilson? Cullen: Any of the three should be a viable fantasy starter this season, but the most upside rests with Luck, who has an improved supporting cast, including RB Ahmad Bradshaw and WR Darrius Heyward-Bey and some new faces on the offensive line. That stands in contrast to Wilson, whose big offseason addition, WR Percy Harvin, is injured and Griffin, who is his own injury risk, having not touched the field in the preseason as he recovers from knee surgery. Its low risk to take the No. 1 pick in the 2012 Draft to have the best sophomore year in 2013, but Luck threw for 4,374 yards as a rookie and its not out of the question that he has a chance at 5,000 yards this season. Fisher: The trend for picking quarterbacks in fantasy has been leaning towards the athletic read-option types. But the best fantasy QBs are still the top pure passers like Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning and yes, Andrew Luck. Everyone agrees that Luck will at some point in his career join that group of elite passers; I think hhe does it this year.dddddddddddd Reports out of Indianapolis say hes looked great and ready to take the next step; Luck should flirt with 5,000 yards passing this year and 30+ touchdowns. Griffin III and Wilson are unlikely to hit those lofty numbers through the air, and while their ability to gain yards on the ground will make up much of the difference, Luck is too much of a pure passing talent to go against, not to mention a lessened injury risk. Ward: You cant really go wrong here as I think all three guys are primed for very good sophomore seasons, but Im feeling Lucky too. Last season Luck threw for 4,374 yards and 23 touchdowns but completed only 54.1 percent of his passes and was intercepted 18 times. With a year of experience under his belt and new OC Pep Hamiltons more conservative, QB friendly system, I expect the completion percentage to go way up and the interceptions to go down. During his last two seasons at Stanford under Hamilton, Luck completed more than 70 percent of his passes. Im expecting numbers in the neighbourhood of 4,500 yards, 30 pass TDs, 12 INTs, 250 rush yards and 4 rush TDs. I just dont see Griffin III with his knee injury, lack of preseason action and weird dynamic with Mike Shanahan or Wilson without Percy Harvin for a big chunk of the year being able to match those stats. 3) What type of season do you expect from Steven Jackson in Atlanta this season? Cullen: For a 30-year-old running back -- a time when production generally starts to fade -- this is a really good situation for Jackson. Hes been cranking out 1,000-yard seasons in each of the last eight years for St. Louis, but has scored six touchdowns or fewer in each of the last four seasons because the Rams havent had much of a team supporting him. In Atlanta, Jackson is the supporting cast for one of the leagues best passing offences and a past-his-prime Michael Turner rushed for 11 touchdowns with the Falcons last year, so its not unreasonable to think that Jackson could roll to 1,000 rushing yards and maybe push double digit touchdowns this year. Fisher: As part of the Atlanta Falcons high-powered offence, I think Steven Jackson could be a top 10 fantasy RB this season, or very close to it. The move from St. Louis offence to Atlanta should outweigh the extra year of wear and tear on the now nine-year veteran. Michael Turner, who we can all agree was running on fumes last year with the Falcons, still managed a double-digit touchdown season. Jackson, a far superior runner, should have enough tread left on his tires to exceed that number and then some. All the warning lights go off with Jackson. Hes 30-years-old now and long ago passed 1,500 career carries. But he still looked good with the Rams most of the time last year (it was the rest of the offence that didnt) and even if he completely falls off a cliff skill-wise, youre still getting an RB2 (Turner finished 17th among running backs last season.) Ward: A very good one. Sure, Jackson is getting up there in age and has some of his explosiveness, but hes still coming off his eighth consecutive 1,000 yard season and Id be surprised if he didnt make it nine in row. Im not expecting huge rushing numbers in the Falcons pass-heavy offence but something in the 1,100 yards range with maybe a slight uptick in his receiving yards from last year sounds about right. Where I really expect more out of Jackson this year is in the touchdown department. The Falcons get into the red zone far more often than the Rams so he will have substantially more opportunities to score. Michael Turner, who looked awful last year, hit paydirt 11 times so double-digit touchdowns are definitely not out of the question for Jackson. Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Jerseys From China Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys China ' ' '
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