HOUSTON -- The Tigers have seen it all -- the 2017 World Series championship and the success as the Astros' ace in baseball's best starting rotation. Sunday, they got their first crack at Justin Verlander as the Astros' hero. And they crushed him.
Verlander's outing Sunday was his first facing his former club, his home from 2005 until last August's trade to Houston. A 2018 All-Star and six-time All-Star with the Tigers, the strikeout machine is the same Verlander the Tigers grew to know.
Perhaps because they recognized something they found so familiar, the Tigers punched the legendary right-hander for season highs in home runs (four) and runs (six) to end a rough six-game losing streak with a 6-3 series finale win at Minute Maid Park.