Mets blanked by Tigers in Justin Verlander’s debut, swept for 2nd time this season
DETROIT — Justin Verlander jogged out to the Comerica Park mound in a familiar setting in front of familiar fans. They gave him a standing ovation. A few of them even chanted “M-V-P” as they did in 2011 when he was named the NL MVP and won the first of his three Cy Young Awards.
Much like for his former Detroit Tigers teammate Max Scherzer the night prior, it was the same, but different. Different because he promptly gave up two home runs in the first inning, unlike the version of Verlander that pitched in Detroit for 13 years.
Verlander made his Mets debut in the final game of a three-game series in Detroit on Thursday afternoon and took the loss in a 2-0 defeat. The Mets (16-16) were swept for the second time this season and even worse, swept by a team with a losing record that isn’t expected to make the playoffs.
The Mets have yet to get the offense and the pitching working together.
“I guess if I could put my finger on it, we probably would be more consistent,” said outfielder Brandon Nimmo. “We have a few guys who aren’t clicking together. You hope that one guy can kind of carry the load, but we have multiple guys in the middle of our lineup right now [who aren’t carrying it], me included.”
The Mets signed Verlander to a two-year, $86.67 million contract over the winter, but he spent five weeks on the injured list with a teres major strain in his right shoulder and all of baseball has been eagerly waiting to see what he can do with his new team.
Verlander (0-1) didn’t exactly look like the dominant ace of the mid-aughts in his Mets debut. He’s now 40 with a family and gray hair, and while his velocity is still around 94-95 mph, his command eluded him at times.
“I was real happy with Justin today,” manager Buck Showalter said. “It was a real highlight to see him work his way through five.”
After the rough first inning, he settled down and got outs, with his velocity increasing in his later innings. The Tigers (13-17) made a lot of hard contact but the right-hander was able to keep it in the ballpark after that first frame. He went five innings, allowing two earned runs on five hits, walking one and striking out five.
“No issues, physically,” Verlander said. “It felt like, as the game went along, the velocity started to come too. So overall, a good day.”
Verlander threw 79 pitches, which was right around where the Mets set his limit and 10 more than he threw in his only rehab start. It’s unrealistic to expect him to throw 100 pitches in his first start of the season, but he expects to be able to work up to that mark soon.
It was a good start, though not great, but the offense behind him wasn’t great either.
The Mets managed only two hits against left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez (3-2) over eight innings. He walked only one and struck out nine, flummoxing the Mets throughout. Rodriguez was the recipient of a standing ovation himself from the 18,369 fans who came downtown to watch the Tigers’ former ace pitch against the current one.
Alex Lange recorded the save with a scoreless ninth.
“I’m going to give a lot of credit to Rodriguez,” Showalter said. “He had the cutter in and the cutter away with the backdoor. He had a very liberal strike zone that was there for both teams. Enough changeup, but he didn’t throw many breaking balls because he didn’t have to. And he had good command.”
It’s been a frustrating stretch for the Mets between rainouts and doubleheaders and inconsistent offensive performances. They’ve been shut out twice in their last 10 games and six times total already this season, lost nine out of their last 11 and have scored only one run in the last 18 innings.
“Three hits and we only hit one ball hard all day,” Showalter said. “That’s the thing that I dwell on.”
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