LAKELAND, Fla. -- Justin Verlander could understand being called insane, the way his second start back as a Tiger unfolded.
Through three innings, he had four strikeouts, but three hits allowed -- all home runs, all off fastballs, all against left-handed hitters, all intended for the outside corner but left over the plate.
“Really, all three of those pitches, I'm trying to do the exact same thing,” he said after the Tigers' 4-3 Grapefruit League loss to the Yankees, “and ended up with the exact same result. So I guess I'm insane, because that's the definition of it.”
In Spring Training, though, that’s the purpose. He doesn’t want to give up home runs, but he also doesn’t want to leave his mechanics out of sync at a time when he was tinkering with the fastball.
“Especially mechanics-wise, I absolutely abhor yanking fastballs,” Verlander said. “It's one of the biggest no-nos for pitchers. So when I do it, it's like, 'Man, I've gotta get away from that. I have to practice not doing that.'
“In the middle of the game, it's frustrating when you do it again, but that's Spring Training. It's what it's for. Your timing's not quite there. Mechanics aren't quite there. It's what this is for. At the same time, gotta be better. That's something that sticks out like a sore thumb for me today. I can't be yanking fastballs like that.”
Welcome to the mind of Verlander, and the drive for perfection -- no matter how hard it is to obtain -- that continues to push him.
“The only way to practice it is games,” he said. “I don't care how hard you try in a bullpen or whatever, it's just a different mechanical output on the mound in a game. You're seeing things differently. There's a batter in the box. There's just a whole lot of different stimulus.”
The third home run, a second-inning solo homer from Seth Brown, was a better pitch than the back-to-back first-inning drives from Jasson Domínguez and J.C. Escarra. Verlander got a tick up on the fastball at 94.5 mph, compared to 93.1 on both first-inning homers.
“He’s been working a lot on his fastball, so I know he wanted to throw a lot of them,” manager A.J. Hinch said.
In an era when pitchers can come out throwing maximum velocity in their first live batting practice, let alone their first game, Verlander has been a builder for years. It’s a process that has taken on more importance as he has gotten older. So watching Verlander average 93.5 mph with his heater in his second Spring Training start isn’t the end of the world, particularly when he topped out at 95.5.
How much he can build on that at age 43 is the bigger question.
“I don't know, man, I'm trying not to obsess over velo,” Verlander said. “I'm clearly not going to be the guy that throws 100 anymore, but I'd like to be able to average [94], I think. But clearly I think the fastball's still good enough to get good results on offspeed pitches. I thought the offspeed stuff was really good today for the most part, had guys way out front.”
Verlander induced 12 swinging strikes out of 61 pitches, 10 of them on offspeed. He threw just two sweepers, but got whiffs on both of them, as he did on four of 10 swings on his more traditional slider. His curveball drew two whiffs on three swings along with two called strikes, including a called third strike on Ben Rice for the first of his five strikeouts.
“It’s a typical veteran move to go out and try to establish something that he’s been working on in the bullpens,” Hinch said. “The secondary stuff was good.”
Verlander will get one more start in Grapefruit League play next week before the Tigers head west to open the season in San Diego on March 26. Undoubtedly, the fastball will be a big part of that.