Detroit — AJ Hinch wanted to be clear where his allegiances were in the matter of Justin Verlander vs. Miguel Cabrera.
“It’s hard not to be super one-sided,” he said.
Really? One of them helped him win a World Series. The other plays for him right now. Both are going into the Hall of Fame. And, on crisp, sunny Sunday at Comerica Park, the former Tigers teammates faced off against each other for the final time.
“I’ll take Miggy,” he said. “But I do want everybody to soak up how cool this is. JV can either miss with four straight and let Miggy walk. Or he can put one right there for him if he wants to honor him (laughs).”
You know that didn’t happen. The two faced each other twice in the Astros’ 17-4 romp. Cabrera will go into retirement hitless against Verlander.
BOX SCORE: Astros 17, Tigers 4
“For a baseball enthusiast, how awesome is this,” Hinch said. “To have two living legends, both ticketed for the Hall of Fame, especially here at this ballpark, our franchise — they’ve meant the world to what the Tigers have been for multiple decades.
“It is cool to take a step back and look at that.”
The crowd of 28,496, with a large throng peering over the bricks in left-center and right-center, gave Verlander a standing ovation before his first pitch, causing home-plate umpire Andy Fletcher to pause the game.
“Pretty cool,” Verlander said. “The fans were great, which I’ve always appreciated.”
Then the two old warriors acknowledged each other with a hat-tip.
“Getting a second to tip my cap to Miggy before we go at it was pretty cool,” said Verlander, who notched his 100th career win at Comerica Park on Sunday, the only pitcher to accomplish the feat. “We’ve had a lot of great memories on and off the field. I love that guy. I have so much respect for him. I’m glad AJ put him in the lineup and I’m glad we had that moment.”
Verlander got Cabrera to take a called third strike in the second inning. He threw him four straight fastballs (93-94 mph) and then, with the count 2-2, froze him with curveball at the top of the strike zone.
Cabrera came up with two on and two out in the fourth topped a slow ground ball to third base.
Cabrera is 0 for 5 in his career against Verlander.
Miggy had a moment, though, albeit with the Tigers’ down by two touchdowns. He launched career homer No. 510, a three-run shot in the eighth inning, against reliever Phil Maton. With that, he passed Gary Sheffield and moved into 26th on the all-time list.
“He’s one of the top right-hand hitters of all time,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “He’s passed some good guys. I looked up there. I didn’t know Gary Sheffield had that many home runs. I don’t know why he’s not in the Hall of Fame. And Miggy just passed him.”
Cabrera also moved up to No. 11 on the all-time RBI chart with 1,871, passing Mel Ott.
“Miggy facing his old friend was cool,” Hinch said. “We’re going to soak that up and remember that matchup, especially Tigers fans who are emotionally attached to both guys. But I guess if you are going to go home with any semblance of joy after today, a Miggy pull homer and seeing the numbers change on markers out there is it.
“I always love when something positive happens to Miggy.”’
The rest of the day belonged to the visitors.
Verlander shut out the Tigers on two hits over five innings, though it wasn’t exactly a Cy Young-vintage performance. He walked two and hit three and needed 95 pitches to get through the five innings.
“We worked him pretty tough until he took over the at-bats when we had guys on base,” Hinch said. “You could see him reach back and dial up extra velocity and a better slider and he mixed in the slow curveball. He made the adjustments when it mattered most, which is what elite guys do.”
That was the vintage part, the way Verlander responded to duress.
He loaded the bases in the second inning with two hit-batsman and a walk. But he bowed his neck and struck out Zach McKinstry (three pitches) and Jake Rogers. His fastball had been sitting at 93 mph. He threw four straight 96-mph heaters to Rogers.
The Tigers put the first two batters on in the fifth. Again, Verlander dug in. He won an eight-pitch battle with Riley Greene. He threw him six straight fastballs and then struck him out with a slider. He struck out Spencer Torkelson with three straight fastballs.
He ended the inning by getting Kerry Carpenter on a check-swing roller to first base.
Tigers starter Alex Faedo was up for the fight, too, but he came up on the wrong end of two costly long at-bats.
He got two quick strikes on Kyle Tucker in the third inning. There was a runner on first and two outs, the game still scoreless. But Tucker fought off the next six pitches before drilling a 3-2 fastball inside the foul pole in right field for his 26th home run of the season.
“I’ve been facing Tucker since we were little kids,” said Faedo, whose high school team in Florida was in the same district as Tucker’s. “I’ve seen him a lot and it feels like, for some reason, I’ve gotten him to two strikes a lot in my life and not been able to put him away.”
With the count 0-2, Faedo went fastball, slider, changeup, slider and then three straight fastballs.
“Three fastballs in a row to Tucker is tough,” Hinch said. “You’ve got to make sure you are perfect there. There’s a little cat-and-mouse game there, but he can hit a fastball. Obviously, if he got beat with a breaking ball there I’d come in here and talk about execution.
“But losing some creativity at that moment felt like we missed an opportunity.”
Faedo didn’t hate the pitch. He hated where he threw it.
“I definitely don’t think it was the wrong pitch,” he said. “I just missed on the wrong side of the plate and he hit the homer. He’s one of the best hitters I’ve ever faced.”
With the bases loaded and two outs in the fourth inning, Faedo lost a 10-pitch battle with Yordan Alvarez, walking in a run with a 3-2 changeup.
“There was a lot of battle today,” Faedo said. “Having that much traffic in 4.2 innings and only giving up three runs — I mean, for not being the best outing, you can take that as a win. There’s a lot I can learn from this game.”
The Astros blew the game open against lefty reliever Tyler Holton in the seventh. Holton, who pitched a scoreless sixth inning and hadn’t allowed a run in 13.1 straight innings, got tagged for four, including back-to-back home runs by the bottom two hitters in the Houston lineup — Mauricio Dubon and Martin Maldonado.
Then they made a mockery of the whole day, sending 13 hitters to the plate and scoring seven more runs in the eighth, most off lefty Andrew Vasquez. Jeremy Pena, who had five hits in the game, delivered a bases-loaded triple.
Catcher Carson Kelly finished the inning, giving up a homer to pinch-hitter Yainer Diaz.
A second position player, Zack Short, was deployed in the ninth and limited the damage to just three more runs.
It was fun for a minute, though.
“The tough part of any day is you lose,” Hinch said. “It was a tale of two sides of the game — the first five innings and the last three. But I hate losing either way.”
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
X: @cmccosky
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