made the 557th and final start of his career Saturday at Comerica Park, working 5.1 innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates before leaving to a standing ovation and chants of “JV, JV, JV.”
It was his first appearance in a uniform at home since August 20, 2017. Hip and hamstring injuries had kept him off a major-league mound since March 30. He skipped parts of his rehab to get here and was not stretched out for a normal start. He still threw 91 pitches, struck out six and allowed only two solo home runs. He walked off after a long hug with his daughter, Genevieve Verlander.
A night earlier, during the Detroit Tigers’ retirement ceremony, seven-year-old Genevieve Verlander threw out the ceremonial first pitch. She threw a strike. Her father caught it, raised his arms and hugged her as the park cheered.
They had practiced at Comerica Park. “It’s been awesome. We’ve been practicing,” Verlander said. “She’s all pumped up about it. We actually came out here to the field and practiced off the mound one day. I asked her, ‘Where do you want to go? You want to go to the mound?’ And she’s like, ‘The mound.’ I’m like, that’s my girl.”
He also thanked his family from the field. “To Kate, Genevieve, and Bellamy, I’m so grateful for your love and support,” he said. “Life for me was just about baseball for the longest time. You guys showed me that there’s so much more to life.”
Justin Verlander made clear all week he did not want a cameo. “I don’t just want to go out there and go one inning, come out and wave. I want to toe the rubber one more time in a competitive way and try to win the a ballgame,” he said.
Manager AJ Hinch had the same message. “He’s made it perfectly clear to me that he doesn’t want the one-inning sendoff,” Hinch said. “He’s going to give his best shot to have as close to a normal game as he can.”
Verlander admitted the buildup was incomplete. “There’s no script,” he said. “I skipped about a month’s worth of rehab to be able to do this.”
A day earlier he told the park: “I am, and always will be, a Detroit Tiger.”
(More to follow)
