Verlander: Tigers’ 9th-inning rally ‘beautiful thing’

DETROIT — It was Justin Verlander’s game. Then, it was the Tigers’ rally.

“Not the way I would’ve liked it to go down,” Verlander said of the wild ninth inning in Saturday’s 3-2 win over the Astros, “but made it exciting.”

For eight innings, Verlander held down the hottest team in baseball since June. With eight scoreless innings and 96 pitches, he was three outs away from the eighth shutout of his career, and just the second 1-0 shutout.

He couldn’t shut down the Astros one more time in the ninth, much as he tried. Thanks to his teammates in the bottom of the ninth, he got the complete-game win anyway.

“He battled and kept it at two,” said Justin Upton, who scored the tying run. “And for us, one run, we don’t feel like that’s too much to ask. As a team, we try to get it back for him.”

It was a loud ending to a game that Verlander kept quiet for most of the evening. After striking out George Springer and Preston Tucker to begin the game, Verlander faced a first-inning jam thanks to Jose Altuve’s single and Carlos Correa’s double.

Needing an out on Colby Rasmus, Verlander went to his curveball, a pitch that had been inconsistent for him for the last several starts. The breaking ball froze Rasmus as it hit the inside corner and drew the …

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