Detroit 5, Houston 3: Verlander's shaky start erased by Salty's bat

HOUSTON – When the first baseball hit the foul pole, Justin Verlander was reeling.

His fastball was flat, over the middle of the plate to right-handed hitters, and early Saturday evening, the Astros made him pay. First, it was George Springer, who lined a home run off the foul pole in leftfield. Then, it was Tyler White, who hit a home run off the back wall.

“Early, you look up and it’s 2-0 before you even get a feel for the game,” Verlander said.

But when the second baseball hit the foul pole, Verlander was winning.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia backed his battery mate with another big hit, this time, a two-run home run off the foul pole in rightfield, to propel the Tigers past the Astros, 5-3, at Minute Maid Park.

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• BOX SCORE

The home run was Saltalamacchia’s third this year. All three have given the Tigers the lead.

“I don’t think that’s going to happen all the time,” he said. “But I’m fortunate enough to have guys on base and getting a lot of opportunities I haven’t had in the seven hole. It goes to show you how deep our lineup is.”

By that point, Verlander had shaken off a slow start. He allowed three runs on seven hits over six innings, all on those two home runs in the first inning. He struck out eight and walked two.

“For our offense, you give up three early, it’s like, ‘OK, if I can settle down and keep us in the game, we still got a chance to win,’ so that was my main focus,” Verlander said. “You can’t think about what’s happened. You gotta think about what’s moving forward.”

His day ended with an emphatic fist pump into his baseball glove after third baseman Nick Castellanos laid out to his left to start an inning-ending double play in the sixth inning. It marked the ninth consecutive game the Tigers turned a double play. They turned another in the seventh inning to erase lefty Justin Wilson’s only hit allowed.

Much of the game was clouded in a malaise of Verlander’s shaky start and the Tigers’ bad baserunning – they twice made mental errors, robbing themselves of runs – but after their ace straightened things out and Saltalamacchia once again hit one out, their bullpen and big bats drove the win home.

In the second inning, Castellanos tried stretching a double into a triple and was thrown out by 10 feet. Saltalamacchia then doubled. In the fifth inning, Justin Upton did not score on a Miguel Cabrera double to rightfield. He was stranded at third base.

“The baserunning wasn’t good tonight,” Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said. “Luckily it didn’t cost us the game.”

They did not, not when Wilson and Mark Lowe and Francisco Rodriguez each threw scoreless innings to shut down the Astros late. The back-end of the bullpen trio faced the minimum number of hitters, combining to throw 28 pitches. With 389 career saves, Rodriguez stands one away from tying Dennis Eckersley for sixth all-time.

Castellanos continued his hot hitting, going 3-for-4. Miguel Cabrera went 3-for-4. Victor Martinez, Jose Iglesias and Saltalamacchia each had two hits. The Tigers totaled 15 hits, the last, a RBI double by Martinez in the ninth inning to pad the lead.

“Getting down today 3-0, coming back, I thought was a good comeback victory,” Ausmus said. “We had nine innings to do it but still, you’re down 3-0 and you’re on the road, it’s not easy to do.”

Contact Anthony Fenech:afenech@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@anthonyfenech. Download our Tigers Xtra app for free on Apple and Android devices!