By NOAH TRISTER AP Baseball Writer
Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer were together on some memorable Detroit teams before moving on and winning championships elsewhere.
Will they eventually enter the Hall of Fame as part of the same class?
The first question is whether both will retire after this season. The 43-year-old Verlander has already announced this is his final year. He’s made only one start in a reunion season with the Tigers, although Detroit fans are hoping he can return for another this coming week.
Scherzer’s future is less clear. The 42-year-old right-hander is slated to start Tuesday at Baltimore as the Blue Jays try to keep their flickering playoff hopes alive, but Scherzer has posted ERAs over 5.00 both this season and last. He’s on a one-year contract with Toronto.
Some other prominent players may also have made — or might be making — their last appearances in the major leagues. Trey Mancini signed a one-day contract to retire with the Orioles and was celebrated this past weekend in Baltimore. Andrew McCutchen and Carlos Santana, both 39, were released last month. Craig Kimbrel, now 38, has pitched for 10 different big league teams in the last six seasons.
Paul Goldschmidt is 39, but his team — the New York Yankees — is heading to the playoffs. And he may be more important than expected if Aaron Judge is out.
With a lockout possible after this season, there could be some retirements we don’t anticipate. Rick Sutcliffe, Bo Jackson and Hall of Famer Goose Gossage, for example, never played again after the 1994 strike but didn’t actually retire until the following year.
Trivia time
Who is the most recent player voted into the Hall of Fame by the BBWAA whose primary team was the Tigers? (The drought is likely to end soon with Miguel Cabrera and then Verlander.)
Performance of the week
Angel Martínez homered from both sides of the plate and had four hits in Cleveland’s 12-6 win over the Athletics on Saturday night. The Guardians have won five straight and are closing in on a postseason spot. They have a one-game lead over the Chicago White Sox atop the AL Central, and it’s another three games back from the White Sox to Toronto and Houston in the race for the last wild card.
In the National League, Philadelphia leads Arizona by four games for the final wild card, so anyone rooting for chaos this coming week may be disappointed.
Comeback of the week
Detroit was down 8-2 in the fifth inning Friday night before scoring nine unanswered runs to win 11-8 over the White Sox. Kevin McGonigle hit a three-run triple, and both Hao-Yu Lee and Riley Greene added two-run homers during the comeback. Detroit’s win probability was down to 3.2% in the fourth inning according to Baseball Savant.
That’s the only game the Tigers have won out of their last five. They’ve been eliminated from the playoff race, the end of a frustrating season in which nothing seemed to go as planned.
Team of the week
The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres both went 6-1, with the Dodgers posting the superior run differential. A three-game sweep of San Francisco leaves the Dodgers four games ahead of Atlanta for the second bye in the National League as they try for a third consecutive World Series title.
There are still health concerns for the Dodgers, with Shohei Ohtani on the injured list and Blake Snell having left his last start after one inning.
Los Angeles did get Edwin Diaz back, and he threw scoreless innings on back-to-back days Friday and Saturday.
Trivia answer
Al Kaline, who was inducted in 1980.
George Kell, Hal Newhouser, Jim Bunning, Sparky Anderson, Jack Morris and Alan Trammell have been elected since then with the Tigers as their primary team, but they weren’t voted in by the BBWAA.
___
See AP’s full MLB coverage here