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SEATTLE -- Felix Hernandez and Justin Verlander couldnt settle things Wednesday night, so slugger Nelson Cruz decided the outcome with his bat.Cruz hit his 28th homer in the eighth inning after Hernandez and Verlander dueled through the first seven, and the Seattle Mariners beat the Detroit Tigers 3-1 to complete a three-game sweep.Cruz hit a 1-1 pitch from Justin Wilson (2-4) over the batters eye 421 feet away to help the Mariners get their season-high sixth straight victory.Hes always aggressive with the fastball, Cruz said. I looked for something I could hit.Hernandez and Verlander each pitched seven innings of one-run ball in a battle of former Cy Young Award winners. Hernandez struck out eight and allowed three hits and four walks, while Verlander allowed seven hits and two walks and struck out six.It was what it was billed to be, Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said. Two very good pitchers going at it, Felix and (Verlander), and they both pitched outstanding. The difference was the eighth inning.Leonys Martin added an insurance run on an RBI single later in the eighth. That gave Nick Vincent more of a cushion to finish the game, and he got his second save filling in for closer Edwin Diaz, who needed to rest.Hernandez was lifted after throwing a season-high 117 pitches, and Verlander also had a season high with 121. Both knew they had to work long into the game to protect their bullpens after a 15-inning contest on Tuesday.Hernandez had trouble in his previous four starts with the first inning, allowing a combined nine runs. He retired the side 1-2-3 to begin Wednesday.About time, Hernandez said. I just tried to make better pitches in the first inning. Facing a great lineup, facing a great pitcher, your level, you have to raise it up. You just have to challenge them.Instead, Verlander flinched in the first, allowing Robinson Cano to tag him for his 25th homer on a 1-2 changeup.I knew, based on (Tuesday), my pitch count limit was probably a little higher than it normally would be, Verlander said. And thats to be expected, thats what I want, thats what I needed tonight. Those guys battled. It was a combination of those guys battling and fouling off some tough pitches, and me not being as consistent as I would like early in the game.All of a sudden you look up and find yourself with 75 or so pitches after four, and thats not very conducive of going deep in the game. I was happy to go out and get through seven innings and not have our bullpen come in too early, because they were pretty taxed last night.Arquimedes Caminero (1-0) pitched the eighth and earned the victory.BULLPEN BACKUPAfter Tuesdays game in which 16 combined pitchers were used, both the Tigers and Mariners added to their bullpens. The Mariners promoted RHP Jarrett Grube from Triple-A Tacoma, and OF Guillermo Heredia was optioned out while SS Luis Sardinas was designated for assignment. The Tigers called up RHP Warwick Saupold from Triple-A Toledo, placing OF Cameron Maybin (left thumb sprain) on the 15-day disabled list.CUPPING `DEFINITELY WORKSTigers reliever Alex Wilson is amused by Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps and other athletes who have embraced cupping, a treatment that involves applying glass or plastic cups to the area of discomfort and either applying heat or suction to create a vacuum.Its pretty common (in baseball), Wilson said. Id say at least the last five, six years. It definitely works.He picked it up in Boston three years ago watching Koji Uehara and Junichi Tazawa do it.I think every swimmer and gymnast have cup marks on them now, he said. Its kind of fun to watch.TRAINERS ROOMTigers: The club placed OF Cameron Maybin on the DL (sprained left thumb) before the game, retroactive to Aug. 4. ... RHP Bruce Rondon missed the series to be with his wife about to deliver a baby. He will join the team Friday in Texas. ... RHP Shane Greene (oblique strain) should be ready to pitch again by Friday.Mariners: LHP Charlie Furbush, on the DL all season, will have rotator cuff surgery Tuesday. His recovery time is 12 to 18 months. ... LHP James Paxton, hit on the left elbow by a line drive Aug. 7, is moving along at a good pace, manager Scott Servais said. No determination has been made when he will start again. He needs to play catch and have a bullpen session to see how it holds up.UP NEXTTigers: RHP Anibal Sanchez (6-11, 5.88) pitches in the opener of a series against Texas on Friday. Hell face righty Yu Darvish (2-3, 2.78).Mariners: LHP Ariel Miranda (1-0, 6.00) worked one inning -- and was the winning pitcher -- in Tuesdays 15-inning victory. That shouldnt prevent him from starting against the As on Friday. 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It says Pocklingtons lawyer filed the appeal Friday in a California court. CTV Edmonton also says Pocklington gave a $100,000 cash deposit as part of the conditions of his bail, and that he will be out on bail until his appeal is heard. Clearance Yeezy For Sale . -- Ty Montgomery had 290 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns, and fifth-ranked Stanford held on to beat No.CHICAGO -- Theyre not just winning the World Series. Theyre not just puncturing dreams all over Chicago. The Cleveland Indians are winning this World Series behind an ace who feels as if he just dropped into this postseason out of a time machine.Hes Corey Kluber. And at this point, were not sure which October legend we should be comparing him to. To Christy Mathewson? To Jack Morris? To Orel Hershiser?What Kluber is doing, no one does anymore. Not in the 21st century. Give him the ball in Game 1. Give him the ball in Game 4. Give him the ball in Game 7 if you have to.His team realized weeks ago it had no choice but to try to win this way. So you know what the ace said when the Indians asked him if that would be OK?I said, Thats what Im planning on, Kluber said Saturday night, after his latest October masterpiece lifted his team to within a game of winning its first World Series in nearly seven decades.He stood on the grass of Wrigley Field an hour after pitching the Indians to a 7-2 Game 4 win over the Cubs. The giant video board over his shoulder flashed, 2016 WORLD SERIES. And the Indians now lead that World Series, 3 games to 1.But the ballpark around him was as quiet. And frankly, that was mostly his fault.It was almost like a party, Kluber said, to have 40,000 people yelling your name.But by yelling his name, that wasnt to be confused with cheering his name. Because the single biggest reason the Cubs are in the mess theyre in right now can be summed up in two words: Corey Kluber. So he would not be the most popular human in Chicago these days, no matter how loud they were yelling his name Saturday evening.The ace has started Games 1 and 4, and won Games 1 and 4 -- by giving up a total of one run in 12 innings. Its no big deal to him. But who does this in the modern world of pitch counts, innings thresholds and third-time-through-the-order phobias? Nobody does this. That would be your answer. Hes the first starting pitcher to win Games 1 and 4 of any World Series since Jose Rijo -- in 1990.You dont see that stuff happening anymore, his pitching coach Mickey Callaway said.Correct. And because the ace keeps taking the ball on short rest, everybody in this rotation takes the ball on short rest. So the Indians have set themselves up, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, to become just the second team in the past 22 years to win a World Series while using only three starting pitchers.The only other team to do it, if youre curious, was the 2009 Yankees. But those 2009 Yankees at least had three viable starters, in CC Sabathia, Andy Pettitte and A.J. Burnett. The Indians went into this postseason with, basically, an ace and a prayer.So when they mapped out their postseason pitching plans, they werent formulating those plans out of some sense of futuristic innovation. They were formulating their plans out of sheer desperation. Because someone has to pitch. Every night. The rules say so. So it didnt take a whole lot of deep sabermetric thinking for the Indians to come to the conclusion that the more the ace pitched, the better off theyd be.The injuries made us do it, Callaway said with a laugh. I dont think this was the plan at all. But when you lose two of your starting pitchers, then you have to adjust.Kluber has started five times since then. His ERA, after those five trips to the mound, is a spectacular 0.89. Only one pitcher in the history of baseball ever rolled up a better ERA in his first five postseason starts. That would be Mathewson at 0.38.So its true that unlike Kluber, Mathewson made all of those sstarts in the World Series.dddddddddddd. But he also made them over 100 years ago. In a very different time and place.Meanwhile back in Cleveland, the ace also has started twice in this postseason on three days rest. Thats something hed never done before this October and something only three other pitchers in the last decade (Sabathia, Chris Carpenter and Clayton Kershaw) have done in a single postseason.Now the Cubs would have to rise up and win Games 5 and 6 to force Kluber to pitch again in this World Series. But the ace is prepared to come back on short rest one more time in Game 7 if he has to. And if he does, that would make him and Curt Schilling the only pitchers to start Games 1, 4 and 7 of any World Series in the last quarter-century.It wasnt like this was some deal where we had to adjust on the fly, Callaway said, where we just said yesterday, Hey, youve got to pitch tomorrow. He knew two or three weeks ago, when the postseason started, that he was going to have to do this. So thats even more pressure on him. When we lost those two starters (Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar), he knew right away, like, Ohhhh crap, Im going to have to throw a lot more innings. He has now thrown 30? of those innings in this postseason, which is two more than all other Cleveland starters combined. And hes up to 245? innings since Opening Day. Thats the most he has ever pitched in his life. But when asked Saturday night if he was feeling the weight of all those innings, Kluber spoke like a man who had decided to will himself not to feel anything until all this is over.When its all said and done, I might feel it, he said. But right now, youre running in these games on so much adrenaline that once you get out there, it all goes out the window.Four weeks ago, he might have been the most top-secret Cy Young winner on earth. But October is a time when secrets like that are revealed. Kluber has shown this month, and especially in this World Series, that he can not only shut down the best lineups in baseball, but he can also do it with four different pitches.He dazzled the Cubs with his darting two-seam fastball last Tuesday. Then four days later, he overmatched them with the curveball that is really his signature out pitch and one of the best pitches in baseball.He probably hasnt even thrown a changeup to these guys yet, Callaway said. So if he has to face them again, you might see some really good changeups.Two years ago, you might recall a fellow named Madison Bumgarner turning himself into a one-man rotation because thats what it took for the Giants to win themselves a World Series. Well, outside of the fact that Kluber hasnt made any emergency five-inning relief outings yet, isnt this practically the same thing?Thats what it seems like, left fielder Rajai Davis?said. To hold em for so long, thats what you need in the postseason. You need a pitcher like that to be able to lean on.Hes our rock. Hes our foundation. ... Hes been our everything. If we can, we might have to put him on our shoulders in the celebration and march around the field.His team is now one win away from unfurling that celebration. So if you see Kluber riding on all those shoulders as the fireworks pop and the champagne flows, youll know why.This guy hasnt gotten his due. Hes won a Cy Young, and he still hasnt been a household name, Jason Kipnis said. But after this, I dont think hes going to have to worry about that anymore. ' ' '