Human.

By definition the word means A member of the genus Homo and especially of the species. It’s easy to forget that Justin Verlander is a human being and isn’t always perfect. After posting a 0.69 ERA in his last seven starts, to see Verlander struggle whatsoever is out of the ordinary.

It all began when Pablo Sandoval began his home run tirade by taking Verlander deep for the first off his three home runs. Sandoval became the first and only player this year to take the Tigers’ ace deep on an 0-2 count. After Angel Pagan got a good bounce off the third base bag , perhaps granted by the baseball gods, the flood gates opened. Marco Scutaro drove in Pagan and Sandoval took Verlander deep for the second time. The Detroit ace himself was in disbelief of the situation murming wow as he watched Sandoval’s second home run land in the seats.

Even though it was a bad game — lets not kid ourselves, it was brutal to watch — it’s not the end of the world. In 1935, 1945, and 1968, the Tigers were shutout in game one of the World Series, but came back with strong game two’s to tie the series and eventually win the whole thing.

But if the Tigers are going to win tonight, there are a few things they need to do differently in game two: