He didn’t pick up the win, but the final game of his career on Saturday was a big triumph for Detroit’s Justin Verlander.
The 43-year-old right-hander, making just his second start of the season due to injuries, went 5 1/3 innings and gave up just two solo home runs in his 557th career start.
Just for good measure, rookie Eduardo Valencia hit a walk-off, two-run home run with two outs in the ninth inning to give the Tigers a 4-3 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Detroit (76-85) will go for a sweep on Sunday afternoon on the last day of the season. The Pirates (81-80) need to win to finish above .500 for the first time since 2018.
Verlander retired the first batter in the sixth inning, and Tigers manager A.J. Hinch sent Verlander’s 7-year-old daughter, Genevieve, to the mound to take him out of the game.
“I didn’t imagine how things would play out,” Verlander said. “I had no clue how my game would go. I really hoped to get five innings. The way it played out — with Genevieve, running out to the mound — man, that really hit me.
“If I could be healthy on the field, I still got it, but I made two starts this year. So I revved my engine one more time. Overall, I felt I left it all out on the field.”
Valencia made sure Verlander didn’t go out with the loss.
“It was the last game for JV,” said Valencia, who became the first rookie to hit a walk-off home run with the Tigers behind since Lou Whitaker in 1978. “I just wanted to make good contact, get a piece of the ball and tie the game up.”
The Tigers will send right-hander River Ryan (0-0, 0.00 ERA) to the mound for the season finale. The 28-year-old was the starter for the Tigers in a 9-2 win over the Washington Nationals on Monday. He is 1-0 with a 1.16 ERA in five career starts and has never faced Pittsburgh.
The Pirates will counter with right-hander Jared Jones (5-6, 3.87 ERA), who is coming off an impressive win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday. The 25-year-old gave up one hit and no runs in seven innings, striking out nine, in a 2-0 victory.
Jones is 11-14 with a 4.02 ERA in 42 career starts and is 1-0 with a 10.38 ERA in one start against the Tigers.
But Verlander has been the story of the weekend. Pirates manager Don Kelly was the starting third baseman for Erie SeaWolves when Verlander made his first Double-A start in 2005.
“He is a first-ballot Hall of Famer,” said Kelly, who playfully asked the umpire to check the ball for a foreign substance during Saturday’s start. “He is an elite competitor who is simply a winner.”
Verlander announced his retirement in July. He finished his 21-year major league career with a record of 266-159 and a 3.33 ERA, with 3,560 strikeouts over 3,576 2/3 innings. The three-time Cy Young Award winner is eighth on MLB’s all-time strikeout list. He finished this season 0-1 with a 7.00 ERA.
Kelly, meanwhile, emphasized that finishing above .500 matters greatly to the Pirates.
It looked as if the Pirates had that finish secured most of Saturday when Brandon Lowe and Jacob Gonzalez homered off Verlander to stake Pittsburgh to a 2-0 early lead.
Bryan Reynolds tripled in a run in the eighth to make it 3-1, but closer Mason Montgomery could not hold the lead in the ninth.
It was only his third blown save of the season. He had converted 15 straight to give him 17 for the season heading into Saturday.
–Field Level Media
