DETROIT – Anibal Sanchez and Jon Lester, Max Scherzer, John Lackey and Justin Verlander, take a bow. Authentic Wholesale Jerseys . You can, too, Clay Buchholz, if we ignore the sixth inning of Game 2. Doug Fister and Jake Peavy, youre up next in Game 4 and theres a lot to live up to. The starting pitching in this American League Championship Series has been brilliant, the efforts of Sanchez and Lester and Scherzer we thought would be hard to top. Yet, there was Lackey and Verlander duking it out, pitch for pitch, and not even a 17-minute power outage delay in the middle of the second inning could slow them down. Verlander whipped through the Red Sox with an eight-pitch first inning, walked David Ortiz in a grueling at-bat to start the second but then struck out the side. Then, he struck out the side in the third. Six consecutive strikeouts and after five innings, Boston had a measly infield single from Jonny Gomes to account for its offence. Lackey, the forgotten man in this duel, was equal to the task. He stranded two Tigers in the first and went on a stretch of 10 straight retired, which included a span of four straight strikeouts in the second and third innings. Those two first inning singles would be all Lackey would allow until the fifth, when Jhonny Peralta led off with a double. Hed get to third with one out but Lackey, true to form in this series, got a big strikeout of Omar Infante before getting Andy Dirks to ground out. Inning over, potential crisis (a run against) averted. The games lone mistake came with one out in the top of the seventh. Verlander, at that point working on a two-hitter, left a 3-2 fastball in Mike Napolis wheelhouse. Napoli, struggling to a 2-for-24 (.083) playoffs at the time, belted the pitch over the left centerfield fence. "I knew he wasnt seeing the fastball that great," said Verlander. "I decided to challenge him and thats, I made a little bit of a mistake. It was a little bit up and over the middle. You have to give him credit." The Napoli home run would be all the Red Sox could get. It would be all the Red Sox would need. Lackey was pulled after 6 2/3 innings of scoreless baseball. He didnt like manager John Farrells decision and made it clear as he gave his skipper the ball before departing. Afterward, Farrell didnt feel hed been shown up. "You never want a pitcher to come out of the game," said Farrell. "If something is made of that, we dont want John to change who he is as a person and certainly who he is as a competitor." "Its definitely probably the biggest game Ive pitched (for Boston,)" said Lackey. "And probably a pretty big one, I guess." Through three games, two of which have finished with 1-0 scores (each team has won one of those), the Red Sox and Tigers have combined to allow eight earned runs in 39 2/3 innings for a 1.82 ERA. Of the 159 outs recorded in the series, 53 have been via the strikeout, exactly one-third. Imagine how the numbers would look if Buchholz hadnt hit a wall in Game 2. Individually, the numbers break down like this: Tigers starters: 21IP, 2ER (0.86 ERA), 6H, 9BB, 35K, 1HR, 0.714 WHIP. Red Sox starters: 18.2IP, 6ER (2.89), 18H, 1BB, 18K, 2HR, 1.018 WHIP. Just for fun, eliminating Buchholzs sixth inning in Game 2 turns the line into this: 18IP, 2ER (1.00 ERA), 13H, 1BB, 18K, 0HR, 0.778 WHIP. Including the National League Championship Series, each of Verlander, Lester, Clayton Kershaw, Zach Greinke and Adam Wainwright has taken a loss despite pitching at least six innings. In that group, only Wainwright has allowed as many as two earned runs in his start. The Tigers also lost Scherzers start (seven innings, one earned run) but he wasnt tagged with the loss. Its happened to all of those great - not good but great - pitchers in the last 96 hours. This, as the Cardinals get great efforts from Joe Kelly and Michael Wacha, the Dodgers from Hyun-Jin Ryu, the Red Sox from the veteran Lackey and the Tigers from Sanchez. These playoffs are about pitching. Brilliant pitching. Cheap Jerseys . Sources tell TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger that the team is quietly gauging interest on the Senators captain, though Spezza has a limited no-trade clause and carries a large contract. NFL Jerseys China . Mladenovics quick hands at the net made the difference while Bencics inexperience in doubles showed. "We took a lot of pleasure," Mladenovic told Sport Plus television. "Its extremely difficult to play in such conditions, but our doubles team showed a lot of quality. http://www.cheapnfljerseyschinasupply.net/ . - Tiger Woods only made it through 10 holes Thursday — this time because of the weather, not his back.SAN ANTONIO -- Kawhi Leonard could have been devastated by losing last seasons NBA Finals. Instead, he vowed to get better. Just think -- the San Antonio Spurs youngest star is only getting started. Hes a champion now, with the Spurs beating the Miami Heat 104-87 on Sunday night in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, finishing off a 4-1 triumph. And after watching the Heat celebrate last season, Leonard was the pick as MVP of the series, accepting his award from 11-time champion Bill Russell. "Everybody is just living in the moment right now," Leonard said. "Really dont know whats going on." Hell figure it out quick. After all, the Spurs know titles -- this one being their fifth since 1999. When Commissioner Adam Silver announced Leonard as the MVP, he was mobbed by his teammates and Spurs coach Gregg Popovich roared with laughter, knowing Leonard would have to do what he hates most -- talk about himself. "Right now, its just surreal to me," Leonard said. "I have a great group of guys behind me." Leonard had 22 points and 10 rebounds, his third straight big game in the series. He fouled out in the fourth quarter, which was barely noticed after the job he did helping keep LeBron James in some sort of check over the final three quarters. When it was over -- actually, a few seconds before it was over -- James led a group of Heat players down to the Spurs bench foor the first round of congratulatory hugs. Soccer Jerseys. The first one he gave, and rightly so, was to Leonard. It was James taking the trophy from Russell in each of the last two seasons, after Miamis titles. This time, the night belonged to Leonard, a 22-year-old who the Spurs have long thought was the heir apparent to the Big 3 of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker. "The first two games, he didnt play so well," James said about Leonard. "I thought he attacked more in the last three games, shot the ball extremely well." Added Heat guard Dwyane Wade: "Its like he just played free. ... Hes the future of this team." The Big 3 in San Antonio is still championship-good. But their key guy now might be Leonard, who just took over this series. "Hes a great learner and hes super competitive, has a drive to be the best thats really uncommon in our league," Popovich said. "He walks the walk. I mean, hes there early, hes there late. He wants more. He wants me and the coaches to push him. So I just talked to him about not being in that defer sort of stage. The hell with Tony, the hell with Timmy, the hell with Manu, you play the game. You are the man." In this series, he absolutely was. Leonard averaged 17.8 points on 61 per cent shooting. And he became the youngest Finals MVP since Duncan won it for the Spurs in 1999. 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