Verlander beats Pelfrey, cools off Mets

DETROIT -- The Mets' giddy joy ride through two of the American League's division leaders ended Thursday at Comerica Park. While part of the credit goes to Tigers ace Justin Verlander, who effectively slowed the Big Met Machine, a large chunk of the blame also belongs on the big shoulders of Mike Pelfrey.

After scoring a franchise-record 52 runs and picking up 69 hits in the previous four games, the Mets mustered only solo homers by Daniel Murphy off Verlander and Carlos Beltran off Joaquin Benoit in a 5-2 loss to the Tigers. As for Pelfrey, he came up small in the showdown, allowing eight hits and five runs in 42/3 innings, his shortest outing since April 29.

The Mets are 41-40 at the halfway point of the season after a 4-2 road trip through Texas and Detroit in which they took down the AL West and Central leaders. This weekend, the Mets get a chance to humble a third division leader when the Yankees visit Citi Field for the final interleague series.

"We're playing well," Beltran said. When asked if the Mets are confident with the Yankees up next, Beltran added, "Against anybody. We should be feeling pretty good about ourselves."

The lone exception Thursday was Pelfrey (4-7), who matched a career high with five walks and threw 109 pitches during his brief stint. Pelfrey was responsible for the only two losses on the trip, and since his June 18 complete game, he has a 6.75 ERA with 16 hits and seven walks allowed in 102/3 innings.

"My command was bad against the Rangers and it was worse today," Pelfrey said. "My fastball command was not good at all, and I can't say I had a good secondary pitch either."

With Verlander (11-3) on the other side, that's not a recipe for success. Pelfrey was fortunate to survive the first inning after walking the bases loaded. But he got Andy Dirks -- the pinch hitter who homered off Tim Byrdak on Wednesday night -- to pop up foul.

That turned out to the easiest part of Pelfrey's afternoon. As much as Verlander labored -- by his standards, anyway -- in throwing 120 pitches in seven innings, Pelfrey looked sluggish from his opening fastball to Josh Thole. With Ronny Paulino nursing a stiff back, Pelfrey's personal catcher was on the bench, and he never looked comfortable.

The Tigers loaded the bases in the third before Alex Avila's sacrifice fly put them ahead to stay at 2-1. That inning further unraveled when the next batter, Ramon Santiago, singled to centerfield to drive in a run and another scored on Angel Pagan's throwing error. Pelfrey, his pitch count skyrocketing, plodded to the fifth, when he served up a home run to Dirks and ultimately was chased by Avila's two-out single.

"The public perception is that he's our ace, and there's nothing wrong with that," Terry Collins said. "He could have buckled under any time and he didn't. In the fifth, he was still standing, and I salute him for that."

Murphy's leadoff homer in the second gave Pelfrey a brief lead, but the Tigers tied it on Austin Jackson's two-out RBI single in the bottom half and never trailed again. Verlander took care of that, even though the Mets made him earn his ninth straight victory. He entered the game tied for the AL lead with a .178 opponents' average and the Mets' seven hits were the most he had allowed since June 4.

After Murphy's homer, the Mets went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position. Verlander struck out Jason Pridie and Beltran to strand two in the fifth. Lucas Duda tripled in the seventh but was cut down at the plate trying to score on a fly ball to left.

"When we got on base, he would make some quality pitches to get out of the inning -- that's what good pitchers do," said Jose Reyes, who reached three times but did not score. He also was caught stealing and was doubled off second in the first inning.

For once, the Mets' offense was held in check. But not their enthusiasm heading into this weekend.

"If you're going to have interleague play, this is the fun part," Collins said. "We're going to go home on a positive note."