MINNEAPOLIS -- Justin Verlander is a 20-game winner.

With a month left in the season, he has a shot at 25.

Verlander was not at his best Saturday afternoon, but his teammates rallied for a pair of late runs to help him earn his 20th victory of the season in a 6-4 win against the Minnesota Twins.

Delmon Young delivered a tie-breaking single in the top of the seventh inning to make a winner out of Verlander, who has earned the victory in eight consecutive outings and has six scheduled starts remaining this season.

"It feels great," Verlander said. "What a team win. I think that emulated all that we go through during a season. There have been times I’ve picked these guys up. There have been times they’ve picked me up. To get to 20 at this point in the season, obviously, you can’t do it all on your own."

Verlander (20-5) became the first 20-game winner for the Tigers since Bill Gullickson went 20-9 in 1991. Not only did Verlander win his 20th game, he did it quickly. Consider the following:

-- No pitcher in the majors has won 20 games prior to the end of August since Curt Schilling did so in 2002.

-- No American League pitcher has accomplished the feat since Roger Clemens did it in 1997.

-- No Tigers pitcher has picked up his 20th win this early since Mickey Lolich reached the milestone in the 131st game of the 1972 season. The game Saturday was the 132nd for the Tigers.

"He’s special," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "There’s no question about that. Today he wasn’t really in his best groove or sync, but at the same time he’s picked us up so many times this year it was nice to see the guys pick him up when he needed it. It was really a nice story for us."

The Tigers scored a pair of runs in the second on solo home runs by Miguel Cabrera and Alex Avila, then made it 4-0 in the fifth thanks to an RBI double by Ryan Raburn and an RBI single by Austin Jackson.

Since Verlander had allowed more than four earned runs only one time in his first 28 starts this season, it appeared that it might be smooth sailing from there, even though Verlander had struggled a bit in the early innings.

But Verlander gave up back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the fifth to the seventh and eighth hitters in the Twins lineup. Luke Hughes, who entered the game hitting .235, led off the inning with his fourth home run of the season. Jason Repko, a .245 hitter coming in, followed with his first home run since August of last season.

Verlander retired the first two batters he faced in the sixth inning before Danny Valencia reached base on a single. Verlander then issued a walk -- his third of the game -- to Rene Tosoni, who entered the game hitting .186.

That walk proved costly as Hughes followed it by lashing a double to the wall in right-center to tie the score at 4-4.

"You could see that he was not in sync," Leyland said. "You could see that from the get-go. It looked like he settled in a little bit in the middle there, then all of a sudden he was a little antsy again. But what a tremendous accomplishment."

When Verlander went to the bench at the end of the sixth with the score tied 4-4, it was obvious the Tigers had one inning to make a winner out of him. He had thrown 112 pitches to that point and was not likely to pitch another full inning.

His teammates came through when he needed them. The Tigers had runners on first and second with one out in the seventh when Young delivered a clutch single against his former team to make it 5-4. Cabrera followed with an RBI single of his own to up the lead to 6-4.

Verlander pitched to one batter in the seventh before being removed following his 120th pitch of the game. After an inning of shutout relief each from Daniel Schlereth, Joaquin Benoit and Jose Valverde, who earned his 39th save, the Tigers had the victory and Verlander had win No. 20.

Verlander allowed four runs on eight hits and three walks in six-plus innings of work. He struck out six.

Leyland and Verlander both stressed the importance of the victory from a team standpoint and downplayed the 20th victory. But it clearly still a special day, one that the Tigers franchise had not seen in 20 years.

"It’s nice when you have a little extra involved like there was today with Justin going for 20," Leyland said. "That makes it a better win, to be honest with you, but the most important thing is the Tigers got the win."

Verlander agreed with that sentiment and -- when he discussed which pitches gave him the most trouble against the Twins -- made it clear that he will not be satisfied with just 20 victories.

"Name a pitch, any pitch," he said. "I had trouble finding consistency with anything. I’ve got some work to do between this last start and the next one."