DETROIT -- Justin Verlander took the mound for the Tigers in back-to-back years in winner-take-all games on the road against the A’s. He has nine career World Series appearances, including Game 1 for the Tigers in 2006 and 2012, and 226 career postseason innings. Add in two starts in All-Star Games, and he has seen pretty much all there is as a pitcher.
Which made the anxiousness that accompanied him to the podium on Friday afternoon a strange sight.
"I’m pretty anxious about tomorrow," Verlander said. "It’s weird, because it’s almost like playoff anxiousness, but yet I’m not doing my headphones-on, normal routine, which usually helps assuage some of that. So, feel a little naked right now.”
He’s anxious because this is it. On Saturday, he will take the mound for his 557th and final regular-season start. In a sport and position where injury ends so many careers, Verlander gets to go out pitching. But he also went through a hurried process just to get to this point.
Few pitchers have prepared and pushed themselves to get more out of their arm than Verlander, who trained himself to know exactly what he could give. He learned how to pace himself early in games so that he could pitch deeper into games. But as he readies for Saturday, for the first time in his career, he doesn’t know what he’ll deliver on the mound against the Pirates -- not in stuff, not in endurance, not in results.
“Look, you always have anxiousness and nerves before you pitch,” Verlander said, “but in the playoffs, it's a different level. I haven't really known what to expect this whole time coming into this weekend. And particularly today, I started really noticing: I'm really on edge right now and have a lot of angst, in a good way. I enjoy it, but, I was like, ‘Oh wow, this is more than maybe I anticipated.’”
His preparation has been a series of bullpen sessions and a one-inning simulated game last weekend in Chicago. No rehab assignment, no extended sim game. It was the only way to ramp up in time to pitch again this season before he retires. On Saturday, he’ll give whatever he’s got, and he’ll lean on a 21-year career to help him through it.
At some point, manager A.J. Hinch will walk to the mound and take the ball. But neither he nor Verlander know when that will happen.
“There’s no script,” Verlander said. “I want to go as long as I can. I skipped about a month’s worth of rehab to be able to do this, but I also don’t want to just go out there and throw 20 pitches. I think everybody feels comfortable with 20 pitches, and then after that, we’re kind of in a who-knows zone.”
The more emotional part, the ceremony celebrating his career, took place Friday night. With his family watching from behind home plate alongside Hinch, his longtime catcher and good friend Alex Avila, and his current teammates watching from the top of the dugout, Verlander emerged from the dugout steps, walked the blue carpet and received retirement gifts presented by former Tigers pitching coach Jeff Jones and former Tigers teammate Brandon Inge.
Verlander thanked the Ilitch family, the late Al Kaline, Avila, former teammate and Pirates manager Don Kelly and longtime manager Jim Leyland. But he saved his greatest gratitude for the fans.
“We’ve been through a lot over the years,” Verlander said. “Your love and support has meant the world to me. … That love and support has solidified for me that I am, and always will be, a Detroit Tiger.”
Perhaps the highlight of the ceremony was Verlander as a catcher, getting behind the plate for the ceremonial first pitch from his daughter Genevieve. Not surprisingly, she was prepared.
“It’s been awesome. We’ve been practicing,” Verlander said beforehand. “She’s all pumped up about it. We actually came out here to the field and practiced off the mound one day. I asked her, ‘Where do you want to go? You want to go to the mound? And she's like, ‘The mound.’ I’m like, that's my girl.
“She's been really excited. At home, she wants to grab a baseball and go up to play catch with me, which is the first time this has happened. I don't push on her at all, so to have her want to go play catch in the backyard has been awesome, and she's glowing about it.”
If Verlander keeps throwing after Saturday, it’ll be for playing catch with her.
“She's got to get better at catching,” Verlander said. “Right now, she's getting good at throwing. She's not so good at catching. I’ve got to get her good enough that I can start letting it go a little bit.”