Some notes from the Tigers pregame press conference

Some notes and quotes from the Tigers' press conference earlier today with manager Brad Ausmus and Game 2 starter Justin Verlander. Ausmus talked about outfielder Rajai Davis, who has a sprained pelvic ligament that forced him out of Saturday's game against the Twins. He is starting today and batting ninth in center field. "We got here this morning at 8:30 and he got some treatment done," Ausmus said. "We took him outside and he did some agility drills. He looked fine and he said he felt fine. Said he could play nine and steal a base if he had to. "This is probably an injury, if we were in the middle of the season, we'd give it a couple of days. But we are not in the middle of the season, it's the start of the playoffs and as a result, he's in there." Ausmus talked about today's starting pitcher, Max Scherzer. "He's a real good teammate and good guy in the clubhouse. Not afraid to laugh at himself or other people and the guys like him," Ausmus said. "His preparation is very important to him. He takes his bullpens seriously. As you've seen when he takes the mound, he's very emotional. He's had two outstanding years back-to-back." Verlander talked about his solid finish to his season. He went 15-12 with an ERA of 4.54 in 32 starts, but gave up just two runs over 15 1/3 innings over his last two starts. "I think it's a combination of things. Some adjustments I made started to take hold. Just felt more comfortable and started locating my pitchers better," Verlander said. "Definitely started feeling a little better toward the end of the season. Some of the adjustments I tried to make early, they kind of wear you out a little because you are working so hard to try to fix them. At the end, it was just kind of let those adjustments take course and go out and pitch. It seemed to have a good effect." Later, Verlander joked about the finish to his season when asked if he needed it. "It's not like I improved my chances to win the Cy Young or anything," he said. Verlander was asked about matching up with the Orioles. "Obviously top to bottom, guys that can hit," he said. "They led Major League Baseball in home runs. You have to keep the ball in the yard, keep it down and hit your spots. "Every lineup is pitchable, but if you make mistakes these guys can really hurt you. If you look at their resiliency, they were able to deal with key injuries like (Manny) Machado and (Matt) Wieters. Those guys going down, you thought that might have killed them. But they had guys step up. "But like I said, every lineup is pitchable if you make your pitches. But if you don't, these guys can hurt you in a hurry with the longball."