"I can't think of a better ending:" Justin Verlander lands the plane at Comerica Park

He bounded up the dugout steps in the black Reeboks he used to wear in Detroit. He skipped onto the field as Eminem's 'Till I Collapse' thumped through Comerica Park. A sell-out crowd stood and cheered. Justin Verlander had the mound, and the moment, to himself. He stepped off the hill, tipped his cap, and soaked in the scene, drenched in sun and sentiment.

Three up, three down in the first: a fly-out to right, a pop-up to third, a pop-up to center, on 13 purposeful pitches. What's old was new again. The second began with Verlander striking out a lefty, Oneil Cruz, on a slider in the dirt. Then another familiar sight, after a single into right: Verlander spun around and pumped his glove at his catcher after Dillon Dingler gunned down a base-stealer at second. The 43-year-old escaped the inning unscathed, at 35 pitches.

Verlander knew he had at least 20 pitches in the tank after throwing a bullpen earlier this week. After that, he'd be flying blind. Here was the seasoned pilot, sensors beeping, gas gauge dropping, heartbeat stable. Arm still strong. Turns out he had some fuel reserves in the back, and 21 years of experience to guide him.

He's always been able to rear back and fire. He's "always been a thrower," Verlander said Friday. "I'm one of the best to do it ... To have that taken away will be hard." He threw for as long as he did because he's also a pitcher. Verlander started the third by going curveball, four-seam, changeup, slider, changeup to retire the first better. The pitch count tipped past 40.

And then he started throwing: 95 with some tail to strike out Henry Davis. 94 at the knees to strike out Ryan O'Hearn.

"JV-JV-JV!!" they chanted.

"I can go throw in my backyard," he said in happy consolation.

Here, at Comerica Park, in front of 40,000 fans, that's exactly what he was doing.

A long break in the bottom of the third seemed to cool Verlander's arm. His first pitch of the fourth was an 89 mph fastball that was launched into the right-field seats by Pirates slugger Brandon Lowe. No one in Detroit's bullpen stirred. This was still Verlander's plane to land.

He recovered some velocity in the next at-bat and induced a ground-out to first. Then he broke out a sweeper for a strikeout. The fastball was back to 95 -- cruising altitude -- as Verlander dropped in a slider to retire the side. The fans came to their feet and cheered each time he walked back to the dugout. He was through four.

One problem: the Tigers were now trailing.

"I don’t just want to go out there and do one inning and come out and wave," Verlander had said a few days before his final start. "I would like to toe the rubber one more time in a competitive way and try to win the Detroit Tigers a ballgame."

He was going to need some help.

Verlander was approaching 70 pitches as he came back out for the fifth. He was flying on fumes. With verve, and nerve, he won an eight-pitch battle with a slider for a strikeout looking, then a seven-pitch battle with a fastball for a strikeout swinging. He was losing altitude, but gracefully. The next batter, Jacob Gonzalez, sent a curveball into space for another solo homer.

Then a line-drive single into left. Then a ground-ball single into right, and then the help, at least on defense, that Verlander needed: Zach McKinstry loaded and fired from right field and cut down the baserunner at third. The crowd roared. Verlander pumped both his arms like it was the postseason. Indeed, he said he hadn't been this nervous for a start since he last took the mound in the playoffs.

A review confirmed the call, the fans rejoiced again, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief -- which was now waiting for Velander in the bullpen. Verlander waited for McKinstry jogging off the field to slap gloves.

The hope was that the Tigers would scratch a few runs across in the bottom of the inning and put Verlander in line for the win. That part wasn't meant to be. Verlander had done his. But he came back out for more in the sixth. Verlander was proud to be called an ace over a career highlighted by three Cy Young awards, an MVP, a Triple Crown, and 10 All-Star Games. He was even prouder to be known as a horse.

In 13 seasons he made 30 starts. In 12 of them he logged 200 innings. One of Verlander's most fulfilling moments came at the end of one of his worst years, when he battled through injury and ineffectiveness to reach 200 innings in his final start of 2014. He is the last of a dying breed, the pitcher who takes the ball every fifth day and lightens the load for everyone else. The volume matched the splendor. The dependability mattered even more to Verlander than the dominance.

This was his last act of stamina. Hurt for most of the year in a reunion gone awry, Verlander had skipped several checkpoints to make one last start in his old stomping grounds -- "for me, for the fans, for Detroit," he said. Now, 67 pitches into the unknown, he stared down Lowe, the best hitter in Pittsburgh's lineup, and got him to pop out on a four-seam fastball at the top of the zone. Verlander is the active leader in complete games. Today, 5 1/3 innings felt like nine.

A.J. Hinch strode out of the dugout, but not to the mound. He walked behind home plate toward Pittsburgh's dugout, where Verlander's seven-year-old daughter Genevieve was now waiting in the on-deck circle. Before Hinch could even give her the all-good, she sprinted to the mound and well, threw, herself into her dad's open arms. She hugged him around the waist, and Verlander wept.

They were locked in that embrace for nearly 20 seconds. Verlander was sobbing so deeply he had to ensure his daughter that he was happy. The fans who weren't crying cheered. Most of Verlander's teammates hid their eyes behind shades as they gathered around the mound. When Verlander finally let Genevieve go and straightened his back, he hugged Hinch, shoulders still heaving. Then he gathered himself with a few deep breaths and hugged each one of his teammates.

"Every time I’ve taken the ball, I give it everything I have until the manager decides to take the ball out of my hand," Verlander said afterward. "I hope if there’s one thing that people remember of me, that’s it: I gave my all every single time I took the mound. And today was no different. When I lay my head on my pillow tonight, I think I’ll feel like I did everything I wanted to do today."

He walked off the mound holding hands with his daughter, toward his wife and their one-year-old son and the rest of his life. He had done the job, one last time. He will retire having thrown 3,576 2/3 innings, about 1,200 more than the next closest active pitcher (Chris Sale) who isn't also set to retire.

"The way it went, with Genevieve running out, I had no clue," said Verlander. "I was totally blindsided. It hit me like a ton of bricks. We've talked a lot about how my life has changed (in recent years) and what my family means to me and what I'm looking forward to most in retirement. To be able to walk off the mound with them, I can't think of a better ending."

Had the Tigers lost, no one would have remembered the ending. The show was already over when they trailed 3-1 in the ninth. As it turns out, the final act was a rally, sparked by three rookies. Max Clark singled, Hao-Yu Lee doubled and then with two outs, and the drama rising, Eduardo Valencia drilled a ball high and deep to left.

It soared toward the seats and cleared the fence, after Justin Verlander landed the plane.