Verlander on track to start Tuesday for Tigers

After everyone waited around for a minute for Tigers starter David Price to appear, before manager Brad Ausmus finally signaled to the bullpen to summon reliever Alex Wilson.

Verlander (back) has been cleared to make his scheduled start Tuesday against the Pirates, MLive.com’s James Schmehl reports.

Verlander said Friday that he’s feeling better and, if all goes well in the next couple days, he could return next week.

“This is uncharted territory for me”. I think the process leading up to that start is what kind of had a hand in it lingering a little longer.”. “It’s an adjustment for my body”. Over his two starts this season spanning 11.2 innings, Verlander has surrendered 13 hits and eight runs, including four homers.

It’s a new reality for Verlander, who hadn’t been on the disabled list previously in his 10-year career.

Price just thought his outing was over. “But I expect for everything not to be flawless coming right back”. “I attribute that to not being out there pitching and not having the process to build up my pitch count in a normal manner and then going out there and competing at that level very quickly”.

“There was a miscommunication as to whether he was going back out, ” Ausmus said after the game.

The first day he tried to brush his teeth he said his back “was killing me and now it’s fine”.

The Tigers don’t want to rush Verlander back quickly this time, either, looking to ensure that he’s healthy.

“Hopefully moving forward my body makes the adjustment quick”, Verlander said, adding that the only way to strengthen himself is to throw.

Once the back soreness — which first reared its head in Verlanders last start, on June 19 — became public knowledge this week, there were questions about Verlanders workload (117 pitches) in that outing. I said, ‘No, I’m not. Thats part of it. Ive been on the other side of it — my last start in Chicago, I was able to record 27 outs and allow just one run, but it could have been a lot different, ” he said. It really spasmed up on me. They also reached an agreement with Florida right-handed pitcher Michael Vinson (24th round).