DETROIT -- The team with the best run differential in baseball ran into the Tigers pitcher who hasn't given up a run since mid-June. Not only did Rick Porcello win out on Tuesday, he made blanking the A's look easy.Porcello not only became the first Tiger since Jack Morris in 1986 to toss back-to-back shutouts, he needed just 95 pitches and four batters over the minimum to do it. Porcello's four-hitter silenced the Majors' highest-scoring offense in a 3-0 win over the A's. 
One night after Rajai Davis' walk-off grand slam provided late-game fireworks, Miguel Cabrera's fourth-inning run and J.D. Martinez's two-run homer accounted for all the offense at Comerica Park. Porcello took care of the rest, becoming the first Major League pitcher to throw a shutout without a walk or a strikeout since Baltimore's Jeff Ballard on Aug. 21, 1989.Porcello (11-4) moved him into a tie for the Major League wins lead with Yankees phenom Masahiro Tanaka. Both are 25 years old, born less than two months apart. While Tanaka counts as a rookie, having made the jump from Japan in the offseason, Porcello's sixth Major League season is becoming his breakout campaign.With 25 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings, it's no longer a hot stretch for Porcello -- it's a historically stingy one. His last run allowed was a Kurt Suzuki RBI single on June 15. He tossed six scoreless innings in Cleveland in his next start, then blanked the Rangers on three hits last Thursday in Texas.Jed Lowrie's second-inning blooper into short left field was the A's lone extra base hit. Lowrie added a two-out single in the seventh to go with Stephen Vogt's single with one out in the fifth and a Craig Gentry infield single with two outs in the eighth.Much like his last start, Porcello pounded the strike zone with a sinker that moved enough for hitters to make little to no solid contact. Seventeen of the 27 outs Porcello recorded came on ground balls, and none of the hits were that well struck. A pair of fly balls to deep center field were about as close as Porcello came to getting hit hard.The last Tiger to toss a shutout with neither a strikeout nor a walk was Dizzy Trout in 1944.Morris was the last Tiger with back-to-back blankings. He tossed three consecutive shutouts from July 9-18, 1986. His corresponding 31-inning scoreless streak is the last by a Tiger longer than the streak Porcello has going, a stretch that will be put to its next test Sunday night against the Rays.Jason Beck / MLB.com
One night after Rajai Davis' walk-off grand slam provided late-game fireworks, Miguel Cabrera's fourth-inning run and J.D. Martinez's two-run homer accounted for all the offense at Comerica Park. Porcello took care of the rest, becoming the first Major League pitcher to throw a shutout without a walk or a strikeout since Baltimore's Jeff Ballard on Aug. 21, 1989.Porcello (11-4) moved him into a tie for the Major League wins lead with Yankees phenom Masahiro Tanaka. Both are 25 years old, born less than two months apart. While Tanaka counts as a rookie, having made the jump from Japan in the offseason, Porcello's sixth Major League season is becoming his breakout campaign.With 25 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings, it's no longer a hot stretch for Porcello -- it's a historically stingy one. His last run allowed was a Kurt Suzuki RBI single on June 15. He tossed six scoreless innings in Cleveland in his next start, then blanked the Rangers on three hits last Thursday in Texas.Jed Lowrie's second-inning blooper into short left field was the A's lone extra base hit. Lowrie added a two-out single in the seventh to go with Stephen Vogt's single with one out in the fifth and a Craig Gentry infield single with two outs in the eighth.Much like his last start, Porcello pounded the strike zone with a sinker that moved enough for hitters to make little to no solid contact. Seventeen of the 27 outs Porcello recorded came on ground balls, and none of the hits were that well struck. A pair of fly balls to deep center field were about as close as Porcello came to getting hit hard.The last Tiger to toss a shutout with neither a strikeout nor a walk was Dizzy Trout in 1944.Morris was the last Tiger with back-to-back blankings. He tossed three consecutive shutouts from July 9-18, 1986. His corresponding 31-inning scoreless streak is the last by a Tiger longer than the streak Porcello has going, a stretch that will be put to its next test Sunday night against the Rays.Jason Beck / MLB.com
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