Justin Verlander makes Mets debut, but that doesn't prevent sweep by Tigers
New York Mets pitcher Justin Verlander throws against the Detroit Tigers in the first inning on Thursday. Credit: AP/Paul Sancya
DETROIT — Justin Verlander’s first start with the Mets was, well, a start.
In a 2-0 loss to the Tigers on Thursday, the Mets’ third in a row and ninth in 11 games, their newest co-ace finally debuted, recovering from a bad beginning to survive five innings and allow just two runs.
Besting Detroit’s former top starter, though, was its current one. Lefthander Eduardo Rodriguez rolled through eight scoreless innings, striking out nine, walking one and giving up two hits. He retired his final 15 batters. The Mets never got a runner to second base.
The rebuilding Tigers swept the Mets (16-16) by beating them three times in less than 26 hours.
As they head home for a three-game series against the Rockies — who, like Detroit, have been bad — the Mets are a mess.
“We need to find our identity,” Verlander said. “I feel like it hasn’t quite matched up yet. We’ve done everything well at certain points in time, but we haven’t really gone on that run where we start pitching really well night in and night out and start hitting really well night in and night out. And that’s what happens. It’s baseball. It’s 162 games. It’s still early. Obviously, you don’t like to lose like that, but it happens . . . I don’t think it’s anything to panic about.”
Or as Brandon Nimmo put it: “It’s obviously not good.”
Verlander’s conspicuous opening featured first-inning home runs on back-to-back swings from Riley Greene and Javier Baez, staking the Tigers to a quick two-run lead that lasted the rest of the game. Baez hit two in two days against his former team; he had zero before that.
Settling down from there, Verlander scattered three more hits and a walk, totaling 79 pitches. The Tigers (13-17) didn’t manage any additional runs despite lots of hard contact. Their average hit speed against him was 95.2 mph; the hard-hit threshold is 95.
“I feel like those guys hit a couple decent pitches,” Verlander said of the long balls. “I really wouldn’t take those pitches back. I threw them where I wanted.”
The Mets had to wait till now to see Verlander in action because he strained his right teres major, a muscle near his armpit, on the eve of the season. His return took longer than he initially expected, culminating in a minor-league appearance last week and getting on a major-league mound in this familiar setting.
Verlander received a round of applause during pregame introductions and a standing ovation from the Detroit crowd upon taking the field for the first inning. He remains one of the Tigers’ all-time greats, his 13-season tenure highlighted by his dominant 2011 campaign for which he won the AL MVP and Cy Young awards. Since they traded him to the Astros in 2017, Verlander has won two additional Cy Young Awards and two World Series.
The warm welcome was appreciated, Verlander said. But he was more pleased about his body feeling right. His hardest pitch, a 96.6-mph fastball, came against his last batter, Greene. Manager Buck Showalter called the outing “a real highlight,” a step toward what the Mets anticipate will be continued excellence after they signed him to a two-year, $86.7 million contract in December.
“Everything felt good. No issues physically,” Verlander said. “I felt like as the game went along, the velocity started to come a little bit, too. Physically, overall, a good day.”
Showalter said: “I could tell he was getting after it that last inning.”
The Mets’ lineup, meanwhile, showed again that it might not have the same sticktoitiveness that it displayed so often last year. This was the sixth time they got shut out in the five-week-old season; they totaled eight such games in all of 2022.
Two of the three Mets who mustered a single were subsequently thrown out trying to steal second base. That included Nimmo in the ninth.
“We haven’t found that consistency yet, but I think we will,” Showalter said. “Most times I [credit] the pitching, but you gotta beat the good ones too.”
Nimmo added: “We’re just all not clicking right now. That was something we were able to avoid last year.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
