Houston Astros right-hander Justin Verlander, returning to Comerica Park as a visiting starter for the fifth time, finished his outing Sunday as he did so many during his stint with the Detroit Tigers from 2005-17: Sending an overmatched batter back to the dugout — in this case, Spencer Torkelson for the third time in a row, on a popout.

Verlander, a nine-time All-Star and three-time Cy Young winner, allowed just two hits in seven scoreless innings. The 41-year-old mixed and located his fastball, slider and curveball to perfection, including an array of elevated fastballs, to produce eight strikeouts and plenty of weak contact.

It was a vintage performance.

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The Tigers lost, 9-3, to the Astros in Sunday's series finale at Comerica Park, dropping two of three games. Verlander, making his fifth start of 2024 after a spring shoulder injury, limited the Tigers to two hits and two walks while throwing 95 pitches.

The Tigers (20-20) have lost seven of their past nine games, dropping three straight series. In the latest loss, four pitchers allowed 18 hits and three walks to the Astros. The offense, meanwhile, finished with six hits and three walks, though the four hits (and three runs) in the bottom of the ninth inning were too little, too late.

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Verlander retired the first 14 batters he faced.

His perfect game was broken up with two outs in the fifth inning, when Colt Keith topped a two-strike curveball that bounced slowly to third baseman Alex Bregman. The ball rolled too slow for Bregman's off-target throw to beat Keith to first, resulting in an infield single — despite its meager 46.5 mph exit velocity.

Verlander ran into trouble in the sixth inning, when he walked Carson Kelly and Riley Greene and hit Mark Canha — all with two outs — to load the bases, but he escaped the jam. The Tigers stranded the bases loaded, as Matt Vierling lined out to left field on Verlander's first-pitch slider in the strike zone.

Keith nearly hit the first home run of his MLB career in the second inning. He pulled an up-and-in 93.2 mph fastball from Verlander for a 383-foot flyout to right-center field, the most challenging part of the ballpark. Keith's blast would've been a homer in 15 of 30 parks, but not at Comerica Park.

Verlander, whose fastball averaged 93 mph and maxed out at 95 mph, returned for the seventh inning. He worked around a one-out double from Andy Ibáñez to complete his brilliant start.

In the ninth inning, Akil Baddoo collected the Tigers' third hit with a triple to the right-field corner off right-handed reliever Seth Martinez's changeup in his first MLB plate appearance this season.

Baddoo then scored on a balk, trimming the deficit to 9-1. Following a Kerry Carpenter single, Torkelson made it 9-3 with his first home run of the season, a two-run shot to left field off Martinez's middle-down sweeper. He hit the ball 405 feet with a 109 mph exit velocity.

It was Torkelson's first home run in his 38th game and 164th plate appearance.

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Jack be nimble

Tigers right-hander Jack Flaherty nearly matched Verlander, scoreless inning for scoreless inning; he allowed three runs on seven hits in 6⅔ innings, but the only real damage occurred in the sixth. He didn't allow a walk, and he generated seven strikeouts.

In the sixth, Mauricio Dubón pushed an up-and-away fastball into right field for a single, and Kyler Tucker flicked a down-and-in slider to right field for a two-run home run.

It looked like a golf swing from Tucker.

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The two-run homer put the Astros ahead, 2-0.

The third run charged to Flaherty's tab scored in the seventh. Bregman hit a leadoff single, and after Flaherty ended his outing with back-to-back outs, Bregman scored for a 3-0 advantage on a single from Joey Loperfido off left-handed reliever Joey Wentz's second pitch.

Flaherty, whose fastball averaged 93.2 mph, generated 12 whiffs on 47 swings — a 25.5% whiff rate — with four fastballs, four sliders and four curveballs.

He has a 3.88 ERA in eight starts.

Following his departure, everything went downhill.

Oh, that bullpen

A trio of relievers — Wentz, right-hander Alex Lange and right-hander Will Vest — surrendered six runs.

Lange had the worst performance.

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He allowed five hits and two walks, giving up four runs, in the eighth inning. He also had a wild pitch. Vest stranded the bases loaded by retiring back-to-back batters — Jeremy Peña and Yordan Alvarez — to end the eighth.

The eighth began with Alvarez's double off Lange.

The Astros took a 9-0 lead with an RBI single from Jake Meyers against Vest in the top of the ninth.

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers muster just 2 hits off Justin Verlander in 9-3 loss