HOUSTON _ Justin Verlander and John Hicks went to the same high school (Goochland) in Virginia. Verlander was teammates with Hicks' older brother.
And in his first two at-bats Wednesday, Verlander gave young Hicks the equivalent of a high school swirly. A tapper back to the mound and a three-pitch strikeout.
But Hicks got his redemption in the top of the ninth inning. He laced an 0-1 fastball from Verlander over the wall in left field to give the Tigers a most improbable 2-1 victory over the Houston Astros.
How improbable, there were betting lines in Las Vegas before the game at minus-500, making the Astros the biggest favorite ever in a big-league baseball game.
Verlander allowed just two hits in nine otherwise masterful innings. Ronny Rodriguez lined one into the right-field seats with two outs in the fifth.
His 11 strikeouts extended his Astros record double-digit strikeout streak to seven starts. He joins Randy Johnson, Chris Sale, Pedro Martinez and Nolan Ryan as the only pitchers to achieve that feat. Sale did it in eight straight.
Wednesday marked the first time Miguel Cabrera and Verlander faced each other.
They had faced each other on the back fields at TigerTown in Lakeland, in live batting practice during spring training. But this was the first time these two Hall of Fame-bound titans squared off in a regular season game. If only it was 2011 or 2012.
Both are 36 now. And even though Justin Verlander is slapping Father Time around pretty good, Miguel Cabrera, with chronic pain in his right knee and still regaining strength from biceps surgery last year _ well, he's not like he used to be.
The first encounter took two pitches. Cabrera, who tipped his cap to his ex-teammate as he stepped into the batters' box, fouled off a 94-mph fastball and then swung under a hanging curveball. Had this been 2011 or 2012, Cabrera might have put that pitch into the seats.
Instead, he flew out to center.
The second battle was more one-sided. Verlander struck Cabrera out on five pitches in the fourth, getting him to wave feebly at a 2-2 slider.
Cabrera ended up going 0-for-3, as did all but two Tigers hitters.
Tigers starter Daniel Norris matched Verlander in his three innings of work _ at least on the scoreboard. He allowed two hits, but no runs.
The three innings were it for Norris, though. He is on an innings limit and won't exceed three innings in any start the rest of the way. Tyler Alexander went four strong innings, allowing only a tying solo home run to Robinson Chirinos in the bottom of the seventh.
After Buck Farmer pitched a scoreless eighth, closer Joe Jimenez struck out the first two hitters and then the Tigers threw out Chirinos trying to stretch a double into a triple. A perfect relay from Harold Castro in center to second baseman Gordon Beckham to Dawel Lugo ended the game and prevented Chirinos from getting a cycle.
