If you were hoping to see Justin Verlander pitch against Josh Beckett for the second time this season, you'd better have a ticket to Sunday night's Tigers-Red Sox game at Comerica Park.
Not only did Saturday's rainout deprive Tigers and Red Sox fans of baseball (and 17 percent of the FOX national baseball audience), but it also pushed a clash between two of the American League's best pitchers off TBS' national telecast on Sunday afternoon.
MLB.com's Jason Beck has the details:
Unfortunately for those planning to watch at home, that Justin Verlander rematch opposite Josh Beckett is now going to go on without the cameras. Saturday’s scheduled starters, Andy Oliver and Clay Buchholz, will start Sunday’s afternoon tilt, which will be on FSN Detroit and TBS. Verlander and Beckett have been pushed back to the nightcap, which won’t be on television because it falls within ESPN’s exclusive window for its Sunday Night Baseball broadcast.
So hopefully, that Reds-Braves game on ESPN works out for everyone on Sunday night. (One possible bright side for Detroit fans is that former Tiger Jair Jurrjens is scheduled to start for the Braves. I doubt that will be much consolation, however.)
Verlander and Beckett faced each other May 19 in Boston and provided the pitching duel everyone anticipated for six innings.
Beckett was taken out for the seventh inning due to neck stiffness, holding a 2-1 Red Sox lead. Verlander gave up three runs in eight innings, but was taken off the hook for a loss when back-to-back home runs by Brennan Boesch and Miguel Cabrera tied the game. The Tigers eventually lost, 4-3, on a walkoff RBI single by Carl Crawford.