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Verlander takes the ball for slumping Tigers

Sep 1, 2007 - 2:33 PM Detroit (72-63) at Oakland (67-69) 3:55 pm EDT

OAKLAND, California (Ticker) - The fading Detroit Tigers turn to ace Justin Verlander once again.

The Tigers hope to get back on track with Verlander on the hill in the second of a weekend series against the Oakland Athletics on Saturday.

In Friday's series opener, hard-throwing Joel Zumaya gave up the game-winning hit to Dan Johnson in the 10th inning as Detroit lost for the third time in four games.

The latest setback dropped the Tigers 5 1/2 games behind the Cleveland Indians (77-57) in the American League Central.

Verlander (14-5, 3.77 ERA) has seemed to regain his earlier form that made him an All-Star, especially after tossing seven scoreless innings with six strikeouts to beat the New York Yankees on Monday for his third win in four starts.

The 24-year-old righthander was also solid his last time out vs. Oakland, going six effective frames while fanning seven to outshine fellow All-Star Dan Haren in a 5-2 win on August 11.

Haren (14-5, 2.72) enters the contest coming off a tough August in which he went just 1-2 with a 4.15 ERA. It was the first month this season that the righthander did not win at least three games.

In his last time out, Haren struck out a season-high 10 batters, but also surrendered five total runs and four hits in six innings of a 7-4 loss at the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Sunday.

The righthander will be facing Verlander for the third time this campaign, going 1-1 with a 3.65 ERA in his first two starts against the Tigers. Haren outdueled Verlander here on July 31.