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DET@BAL: Verlander fans eight en route to win No. 10

When the Tigers and White Sox face each other Friday, a pair of All-Stars will take the mound in the series opener between a pair of playoff contenders.

The Tigers, who trail the White Sox by 1 1/2 games in the AL Central, will send their ace, Justin Verlander, to the hill. He is 10-5 with a 2.43 ERA this season, fanning 136 -- second in the Majors to Felix Hernandez's 143 -- in a 140 2/3 innings, which is tied with Seattle's Hernandez for the Major League lead. In his first start since giving up five first-inning runs in the All-Star Game, Verlander tossed eight shutout innings, allowing just three hits and striking out eight in a 4-0 win over the Orioles on Sunday.

"I just needed to tell myself that's not the pitcher that I am," Verlander said about the All-Star Game. "I think everybody that has watched me or follows the Tigers or myself knows that that's not me, that's not the way I normally pitch."

The White Sox, who fell victim to a Cody Ross walk-off home run at Fenway Park on Thursday night, will counter with an All-Star hurler of their own in Jake Peavy. He allowed six runs on a season-high 12 hits over seven innings in a 6-3 loss to the Royals on Saturday.

"We understand this is going to be a dogfight," Peavy said. "Win, lose or draw, we understand that if we go about things the right way, we'll have nothing to hang our heads about if it doesn't happen. But we expect it to happen."

The Tigers are in a tight AL Wild Card race. Going into Friday, six teams battling for the final Wild Card spot were within 1 1/2 games of each other, including an Indians team that will host the Tigers for a three-game series following this one.

"It's a big series," White Sox manager Robin Ventura said. "We realize we can play with anybody, but it's a big series. It's not going to make or break as far as the season is over if you don't win them all, but you realize they're a good team and you have to play well to beat them."

Twenty-two of the Tigers' next 53 games are against the White Sox and Indians.

"It's going to be interesting," said Detroit's Miguel Cabrera. "If you want to win your division, you have to beat your division, so we're in a good position right here."

The White Sox, on the other hand, don't see the Indians until late September. None of their next 60 games are against the Indians, but they square off against Cleveland in six of their final 10 regular-season contests. The White Sox are 19-13 against AL Central foes this year.

"In the Central, everybody beats up on everybody," said Chicago's Adam Dunn. "There's so many games left that to talk about head-to-head matchups, to me, doesn't make sense. We put ourselves in this position. If we go out and take care of business and play well, we'll win the division."

White Sox: Veal recalled from Triple-A Charlotte; Hernandez optioned
The White Sox called up Triple-A Charlotte left-hander Donnie Veal and optioned southpaw Pedro Hernandez to Charlotte on Thursday. Veal has gone 6-3 with a 2.08 ERA in 29 appearances with Charlotte this season. His last big league game came in 2009 with the Pirates, a season that saw him go 1-0 with a 7.16 ERA in 19 appearances.

Hernandez made his Major League debut Wednesday, giving up eight runs on 12 hits over four-plus innings in a 10-1 loss to the Red Sox.

• After going 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position during their 3-1 loss to the Red Sox Thursday night, the White Sox no longer hold the Major Leagues' best batting average with runners in scoring position. The Tigers, who got two hits in nine at-bats with runners in scoring position in their 5-1 win over the Angels on Thursday, hold a .2954 batting average this season with runners in scoring position while the White Sox slipped .2948. The White Sox are batting .205 with runners in scoring position over their last eight games.

Tigers: Dirks' rehab assignment delayed
Andy Dirks experienced a setback during a workout Tuesday that will prevent him from beginning a rehab assignment until at least this weekend. He has been on the disabled list since June 3 with right Achilles tendinitis and, despite going through a week's worth of pain-free workouts in Florida, will stop participating in baseball-related activities for now. Dirks was batting .328 with four home runs, 16 RBIs, and 24 runs in 37 games before suffering the injury.

"It's getting better. But yesterday it was just a little sore," Dirks said. "That was the most I did on it, and I came in yesterday a little stiff."

"It wasn't too good," manager Jim Leyland said. "He was real good the day before, and then he came in yesterday sore. So we've backed off it a little bit again."

• The Tigers fanned 10 batters Thursday, getting nine strikeouts from Max Scherzer, who gave up just three hits and one run over seven innings while improving to 9-5 on the year. He struck out both Mike Trout and Mark Trumbo twice. The Tigers lead the AL with 768 strikeouts and 8.47 strikeouts per nine innings.

Worth noting
• The Tigers are a Major League-best 13-5 (.722) since June 28 and have won 10 of their last 16 games at Comerica Park.

• Kevin Youkilis batted .417 with a home run, three RBIs and three runs in his first series against the Red Sox at Fenway Park since being traded to the White Sox last month. His .353 batting average this month is tied for the second-best in the Majors, and he has driven in 15 runs and scored 13 in 13 July games.

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