Jhonny Peralta Leads Tigers with Pair of Homers; LA Ties Giants in NL West on Clayton Kershaw Shutout

Players of the Day for Sunday, July 29, 2012

American League

With Texas blanking the White Sox, 2-0, the Detroit Tigers took advantage to gain a full game in the AL Central standings with a 4-1 win in Toronto.

While Doug Firster was stymying the Blue Jays on seven hits over eight innings, fanning nine, Jhonny Peralta provided a working margin with a pair of home runs, delivering all of the Detroit scoring.

Jhonny Peralta

After the Jays scored in the bottom of the first, Peralta banged his first blast of the game, a three-run shot to left that put the Tigers ahead to stay.

Fister blanked the Blue Jays for the next seven innings, handing the ball over to Jose Valverde, who pitched a perfect ninth inning, striking out two, for his 20th save.

Peralta hit his second homer of the game in the top of the ninth, his eighth of the season.

Detroit pulled to within 1 1/2 games of the leading White Sox and head to Boston for a three game series starting Monday. The White Sox are off to Minnesota for a three game set with the Twins, also beginning Monday.

The two top teams in the division don't meet each other until the last day of August, opening a three game series in Detroit, and meet again September 11-13, in Chicago.


National League

Kershaw:
5-hit shutout

After giving up the NL West lead earlier in the month, the LA Dodgers have fought back to tie the Giants atop the division afte sweeping a three-game series in San Francisco over the weekend.

The Dodgers got a stellar performance from their ace, Clayton Kershaw, in the series finale Sunday, a five-hit complete game shutout for a 4-0 Dodger win.

Kershaw (8-6) shut down the Giants on five hits, walking one while whiffing seven. It was his second shutout of the season, the sixth of his career and his eighth career complete game. Kershaw's 143 Ks are third in the league behind Stephen Strasburg (151) and the Mets' knuckle-baller, R.A. Dickey (147).

On Monday, the Dodgers return home to host Arizona while the Giants stay by the bay for a series with the Mets. Arizona is just 4 1/2 games behind the division co-leaders.