TORONTO - Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander threw a no-hitter in a 9-0 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday at Rogers Centre.
Verlander was mobbed by his teammates after striking out Rajai Davis to end the game.
It was the second no-hitter of his career. Verlander (3-3) pitched a no-hitter against the Milwaukee Brewers on June 12, 2007 at Comerica Park.
On Saturday Verlander had a perfect game going into the eighth inning, but walked J.P. Arencibia with one out in the inning.
His performance comes less than a week after Minnesota's Francisco Liriano threw a no-hitter in a 1-0 win over the Chicago White Sox.
Jhonny Peralta and Alex Avila hit home runs for Detroit (16-18), as Toronto (15-18) left-hander Ricky Romero (2-4) took the loss.
After Mike McCoy lined out to centre for the first out of the eighth inning, Arencibia battled Verlander through 12 pitches to work a walk and end the perfect game.
But Edwin Encarnacion grounded into a double play to end the eighth inning and Verlander still had faced the minimum 24 batters on 98 pitches.
David Cooper popped out to second to open the ninth, John McDonald grounded out to second and Davis, who lined out in his previous at-bat, fouled off a 1-2 pitch before working the count to 2-2. He then struck out to complete the no-hitter.
Verlander remained perfect after five innings on a call at first base that had Blue Jays' manager John Farrell out of the dugout to argue.
It came on Encarnacion's sharply hit ball that bounced off Verlander, who made the throw to first and Encarnacion was called out on a close play to end the inning.
With two out in the seventh, Verlander had his first three-ball count of the game when he went to 3-1 on Juan Rivera. The outfielder fouled off two pitches before grounding back to the pitcher to keep the perfect game alive.
At this point Verlander had made only 56 pitches and shadows were over home plate with the roof open for the first time this season at Rogers Centre.
Romero, whose start was delayed two days because of a strained left oblique, lasted 3 1/3 innings, his shortest outing of the season. He gave up six runs and two of the five Tiger hits against him were home runs.
Jhonny Peralta hit his second homer of the season with one out in the fourth. A double by Ryan Raburn and Avila's sixth homer of the season ended Romero's day.
The Tigers scored again in the fifth. Carlos Villanueva walked Miguel Cabrera who took second on a wild pitch and scored on Victor Martinez's single.
Romero's regular turn was Thursday, but he was held out of that start because a slight strain of the left oblique muscle that cropped up after his win against the Yankees on April 29.
There was an off-day in the schedule on Monday, so it was easy enough to pitch Kyle Drabek in Romero's spot on Thursday and follow up with Jesse Litsch on Friday on their regular four days rest.
Romero said any discomfort was gone with the extra two days he was given between starts and he was ready to go Saturday.
