Justin Verlander’s last career appearance will come at the perfect place: Detroit.
The rest of his final season didn’t go as planned.
The future Hall of Famer will start for the Tigers on Saturday afternoon against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Verlander, who announced this past summer that he would retire after the season, will make just his second start of the year.
Detroit (75-85) lost six of its previous eight games before posting an 8-7 victory over Pittsburgh (81-79) on Friday.
Verlander’s second stint with the Tigers was supposed to be a season-long extravaganza as a member of the rotation. Injuries prevented that from happening after the 43-year-old right-hander made a road start against Arizona on March 30, giving up five runs and six hits over 3 2/3 innings in a 9-6 loss.
“I honestly didn’t envision this being my last season, but that’s the way things go,” Verlander said. “(I) slowly came to that realization through the course of the year when I just couldn’t get back out there, so that’s been quite difficult. But I’ve come to terms with it and feel good about where things are at, and I’ve been so thankful.”
Verlander (0-1, 12.27 ERA) will make his first start at home in a Tigers uniform since Aug. 20, 2017. He’s not expected to go deep into the game.
“There’s no script,” he said. “Everybody feels comfortable with 20 pitches, and then after that, we’re kind of in a ‘who knows?'”
Verlander battled a hamstring injury in recent months, suffered during his rehab from a hip injury.
“I skipped about a month’s worth of rehab to be able to do this,” he said. “Never has it been, ‘Make one simulated inning and go ahead.’ But that’s the only way we can make it work.”
Verlander pitched for the Tigers from 2005-17 until he was dealt to World Series champion Houston in 2017. He’ll make the 557th and final start of his career on Saturday, and he said he’s more nervous for this outing than for most of his previous ones.
“I haven’t really known what to expect this whole time coming into this weekend. And yesterday and today, particularly today, I started really noticing, like, I’m really on edge right now and I have a lot of angst in a good way,” Verlander said on Friday. “I enjoy it, but I was like, ‘Oh wow, this is more than maybe I anticipated.'”
Verlander is 5-2 with a 3.08 ERA in 10 career appearances (all starts) vs. Pittsburgh.
Even the Pirates have a strong connection to Verlander. Manager Don Kelly was his former teammate in the minor leagues and with the Tigers.
“It’s unbelievable the career that he’s had, no doubt, first-ballot Hall of Famer,” Kelly said. “To play third base in his first start in Double-A, and then to have the years that we had from ’09 through ’14, and then back again in 2019, my first year coaching … elite competitor. He’s a winner, and just the way that he’s gone about it and the success that he’s had, it’ll be cool to be there for his last start on Saturday.”
Kelly said he expects his ex-teammate to go out with a bang.
“He’s a competitor, man, and he wants to be out there,” Kelly said. “I think the thing that stood out with Justin is you may have beat him, but he never lost. He just kept on going, and that’s just the mindset that he took: He was always going to go out there and keep competing, and this year was no different.”
Pittsburgh will turn to right-hander Kirby Yates (2-5, 3.32 ERA) to start Saturday’s game.
Yates allowed one hit in a scoreless inning in his last outing, a no-decision against the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday. He also pitched a scoreless inning against Detroit on Aug. 17.
Yates is 2-1 with a 3.57 ERA in 18 career relief appearances vs. the Tigers.
–Field Level Media
