DETROIT -- All-Star Game starter? One start certainly doesn't decide who should start the Midsummer Classic, but Justin Verlander made his case while the Tigers' offense roughed up one of the other top contenders Thursday afternoon at Comerica Park.

Verlander looked dominant at times while Placido Polanco, Carlos Guillen and Gary Sheffield all homered off Major League wins leader C.C. Sabathia in a 12-3 win. The win pulled the Tigers within one game of the Indians in the American League Central with three games to go in the first half of the season.

"Who knows?" Verlander said with a smile when asked about the possibility of starting Tuesday's All-Star Game on his usual four days of rest.

Instead of talking about it after the game, Verlander let his performance on the mound do the talking for him.

Verlander allowed a homer and double to fellow All-Star Victor Martinez that plated his only two earned runs of the game, but he looked sharp against the rest of Cleveland's lineup. At one point, Verlander struck out five in a row -- including the side in the fourth inning on 14 pitches -- and retired 10 of 11 after a Ben Francisco single with two outs in the second.

During that stretch, Verlander did use his 99-mph fastball, but knew he couldn't just throw it by an Indians offense that ranks second in the AL in runs scored, second only to the Tigers. So he mixed in his offspeed pitches and kept the Indians off balance, including Jhonny Peralta, who struck out on three straight pitches to start the fourth.

"The breaking ball was going good right there, and we had just come back and put up a big inning," Verlander said.

That big inning Verlander was referring to came in the third from a Guillen three-run homer and sacrifice fly from Sheffield.

"Typically, when we score, my goal is to get back out there and not let them score, keep the momentum in our favor," Verlander said. "I went out there and did just that."

While Verlander worked his way into the seventh inning, it was the shortest outing for Sabathia in nearly a year. He had pitched at least five innings in all 18 of his starts this year, and Thursday marked his shortest outing since he went 3 2/3 innings last July 21 against the Twins.

"Sometimes you get those pitching matchups and they don't turn out quite like you thought they would," manager Jim Leyland Leyland said. "Fortunately for us, it turned out our way today."

Sabathia had given the Tigers fits at Comerica during his career, with a 7-1 record and 3.09 ERA in 10 previous starts. But none of the Tigers got cheated against Sabathia in front 40,923 fans at Comerica, the team's sixth consecutive sellout.

Guillen's homer traveled an estimated 420-feet into the left-center seats, and Sheffield followed with a 398-foot two-run homer one inning later for a 7-2 lead. Sheffield's homer was the 475th of his career and moved him into a 27th-place tie with Stan Musial and Willie Stargell on the all-time home run list.

"He hits 'em pretty hard," Leyland said of Sheffield's homer that barely left the ground.

"The book ain't finished," Sheffield said. "I'm not worried about where I'm at right now [on the all-time homer list]. I have plenty more to do, a lot more things to achieve, so I'm not looking at where I'm at right now. It's all about helping the team win games right now."

Indeed, Sheffield next answered a question about how important it was to win the three-game series against the Indians, a team the Tigers were 3-6 against entering Thursday.

"You could see it in guy's eyes when we came in," Sheffield said. "We didn't want to walk out of here with the attitude that could give [the Indians] more confidence to beat us. We wanted to show them that we could beat them also."

While Leyland can't discuss who he will name the AL starting pitcher for the All-Star Game, he was more than willing to discuss Sheffield's place among hitters during his career.

"I would say in the last 15 years or so, in my opinion, I don't think there's any question he's been one of the five most-respected hitters in baseball," Leyland said. "I don't know who the other four are, I don't want to get into naming them, but I just wanted to throw that out there but that's probably about right."