The Tigers showed no Midwest hospitality to Justin Verlander in his return to Detroit. Riley Greene and Javy Baez welcomed him home with back-to-back jacks.
Making his season debut Thursday after starting the year on the injured list with a shoulder injury, Verlander was taken deep by Greene on his seventh pitch of the year -- a hanging curveball that Greene drilled 383 feet over the right field fence. Two pitches later, Baez smacked a fastball 380 feet over the
fence in right center to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead in the first.
Not exactly how Verlander envisioned his debut with the Mets, who signed him to a two-year, $86 million deal this winter. And not how he envisioned his latest return to Comerica Park, where he dominated for the first 13 years of his career.
The second homer left Verlander to confer with catcher Francisco Alvarez. He likely expected a breezy outing against the team that's scored the fewest runs in the majors. Of course, fellow former Tiger Max Scherzer may have been expecting the same thing Wednesday night and wound up getting tagged for six runs on eight hits in 3 1/3 innings in his return to Detroit in an 8-1 win for the home team.
Verlander and Scherzer, the highest-paid players in baseball, make $86 million combined this season, nearly three quarters of the Tigers' payroll. And it was the Tigers who entered Thursday looking for the three-game sweep.