Detroit — The crowd was smaller, the ovation not nearly as loud. Justin Verlander saw a few familiar faces, but for him, this was a completely unfamiliar scene.
It felt like the end of a nostalgic embrace, heartfelt without heart strings. Verlander returned for the second time with the Astros and reminded Tigers fans of the greatness they once saw on a regular basis. He was mostly dominant, beating the Tigers 5-1 Wednesday night, and the gap between two teams and two eras looked wider than ever.
Houston beat the Tigers by a cumulative 24-6 in the three-game sweep, capped by a routine thumping before a crowd of 15,940 at Comerica Park, barely a thousand more than showed up for the first two games of the series.