DETROIT — Before the game Sunday, Tigers manager AJ Hinch talked about the challenges his young team faced against a decorated and esteemed pitcher like Justin Verlander.

“The major thing about facing a guy like that is controlling your emotions,” he said. “It’s exciting to face someone as premier as Justin. He’s going to bring a ton of energy and a lot of fanfare.

“There is a mystique and an aura about facing somebody like him.”

There was mystique and aura, sure, but there was also a riding four-seam fastball, a biting slider and knee-buckling, 12-to-6 curveball that belied an arsenal of a 41-year-old pitcher who was tagged for seven runs in eight hits in five innings in his last start.

Something about Comerica Park seems to bring out the beast in Verlander, who shut down the Tigers for seven innings, helping the Astros take the rubber match in the series, 9-3.

He started the game Sunday with 14 straight outs before rookie Colt Keith, who was 4 years old when Verlander debuted with the Tigers, beat out a 46.5-mph dribbler to the left side of the infield for the Tigers’ first hit with two outs in the fifth.

Baseball irony: In Keith’s first at-bat, he scorched a fastball, 104-mph off the bat, 383 feet to the cutout in right-center. That ball landed in Kyle Tucker’s glove.

The Tigers managed to load the bases against Verlander with two outs in the sixth inning without the benefit of a hit. He walked Carson Kelly and Riley Greene, then hit Mark Canha with a curveball.

But Matt Viering, jumping on a first-pitch slider, lined out to left.

The only other smudge on Verlander’s ledger was a one-out double by Andy Ibanez in the seventh. He finished with eight strikeouts.

The command of his pitches was spot-on and even though is fastball is a few ticks slower, it was as effective as it ever was. The average velocity was 93 mph, but it was carrying through the top of the zone and beating hitters.

He got 10 whiffs on 22 swings and eight called strikes with it. The Tigers put 14 balls in play against him with a soft average exit velocity of 82 mph.

The last time Verlander threw at least seven scoreless innings at Comerica Park was Aug. 9, 2017. A few weeks later he was traded to Houston.

Tigers’ starter Jack Flaherty traded zeros with Verlander for five innings, but with a man on in the sixth, he fell behind Tucker 3-1. He’d struck Tucker out the first two times in the game, once swinging at a slider and once looking at a four-seam fastball.

This time Flaherty threw a slider off the plate, down and in. Somehow Tucker was able to drop the bat head and launch it (36-degree launch angle) 365 feet over the wall in right.

It was Tucker’s 13 th home run of the season.

Flaherty was at 99 pitches with two outs and one on in the seventh when Hinch summoned lefty Joey Wentz to face lefty-swinging Joey Loperfido.

Not much went right after that. The Astros rolled off six runs and 11 hits against the Tigers' bullpen.

Loperfido foiled the Wentz strategy, hitting a soft line-drive single. Pinch-hitter Jake Meyers and Mauricio Dubon followed with RBI singles to stretch the lead to 4-0.

The Astros blew it wide open in the eighth, sending 10 hitters to the plate and scoring four runs off reliever Alex Lange. They clipped Will Vest for three singles and another run in the ninth.

But it was another quality start for Flaherty— six out of eight— that went unrewarded. He’s still winless as a Tiger.

He struck out seven with no walks, giving him 63 strikeouts and six walks in 48.2 innings this season.

The Tigers got on the board in the ninth. Akil Baddoo, who is expected to be optioned back to Triple-A Toledo before the game Monday to make room for starting pitcher Matt Manning, tripled down the right-field line and scored on a balk.

Spencer Torkelson, in his 164th plate appearance of the season, slammed his first home run. A two-run shot.

The Tigers (20-20) continue the homestand Monday with a series against the Miami Marlins.

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