DETROIT — t when he pitches against his former team Christian Arroyo Jersey , the Detroit Tigers, for the second time in his career and first time in Comerica Park.Verlander (14-9, 2.73 ERA) remains a popular figure in Detroit even after the Tigers dealt him away at the waiver trade deadline last year. It was a trade he agreed to only at the last minute as his desire to pitch for a championship team overcame his reluctance to leave the franchise where he made his bones as a major league pitcher.“I am sure he had this series marked on his calendar for a while,” Detroit catcher James McCann told reporters. “Regardless of what we did to him last time. You know he’s going to want to come out and pitch well, coming back to Comerica.Article continues below ...He has faced his ex-team just once so far and it didn’t go so well for him.Detroit visited Houston earlier this year and pounded the ace of the World Series champions for four home runs among six hits good for six runs (one unearned) on July 15. Verlander took the loss but struck out 12 in six innings and didn’t walk a batter.Since his first appearance against Detroit, Verlander is 5-4 with a 3.93 ERA in his last nine starts.The Astros head to Detroit after losing 6-5 at Boston on Sunday night on a walk-off single by Red Sox pinch-hitter Mitch Moreland. Houston is 89-54 and 2 1/2 games ahead of Oakland in the AL West while Detroit (59-84) is riding out the rest of the season, though it is 6-3 in its last nine games.“It will be a completely different animal the first time I go back to Comerica,” Verlander said in July.He will be opposed by left-hander Francisco Liriano, who at this time a year ago was pitching for the Astros.Liriano (4-9, 4.90) faced Houston in the other series against the Astros but did not figure in the decision during a start in which worked three innings, giving up a run on one hit with three walks and three strikeouts.Liriano picked up his first win since April 28 on Tuesday against the Chicago White Sox when he allowed three runs, on seven hits in 5.0 innings.For his career, Liriano is 2-1 with a 4.37 ERA over four starts against the Astros.Rookie left fielder Christin Stewart can expect to get his first major league at-bat against Verlander after being called up to Detroit on Sunday when his team (Toledo) was eliminated by Durham from the International League playoffs. He hit .264 with 23 home runs and 77 RBI for the Mud Hens.“That’s one of the things we’ve been waiting for,” said manager Ron Gardenhire of the Tigers. “He’s going to play a lot this month. He’s going to get a lot of swings. He’s part of the future.“I want him playing (left field). I don’t want him DHing.”Also called up from Toledo by Detroit were veteran Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who will give the Tigers a third catcher, plus right-handed reliever Zac Reininger.Another pitcher or two will be called up by Detroit soon but Gardenhire declined to identify them because they haven’t been told yet. He said another infielder might be brought up if shortstop Jose Iglesias is unable to return from an abdominal strain.At least one of the pitchers is joining the rotation Nathan Eovaldi Jersey , the manager said, and Detroit will be going to a six-man rotation at that point.“I’ll tell those guys to keep doing what you’ve been doing,” Gardenhire said. “There’s a reason you’ve been called up here.” The fallen star has a shot at redemption in Cleveland"WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections NewsAnalysis & EditorialsCleveland Indians prospects & minor leaguesGame RecapsTransactionsAnalysis & EditorialsHanley Ramirez’s last shotNew,27commentsThe fallen star has a shot at redemption in Cleveland EDTShareTweetShareShareHanley Ramirez’s last shotJoe Camporeale-USA TODAY SportsWith all the youth and inexperience around the Indians this spring, Hanley Ramirez finds himself a bit of an odd man out. There’s a youth movement in Cleveland, and a 35-year-old bat-only player would be right to feel out of place among all these young athletes with something to prove. Ramirez has proven a lot in his career — he won a Rookie of the Year, a batting title, and came in as high as second place in MVP voting. He’s been great.That “been” is the key, though. The last two seasons, Ramirez has been... horrible, at least by his own lofty standards. Even by normal standards he’s been pretty bad. He posted a 91 wRC+, was worth negative 0.7 WAR, and got DFA’d by the eventual World Champs while on the last year of a $22 million deal. It’s a pretty ignominious ending to a career that, from the outset — and even midway through — looked something like meteoric. But the Indians are giving him a shot this spring. I, for one, just wish it would work out for Ramirez.It’s that hackneyed http://www.raysfanproshop.com/authentic-evan-longoria-jersey , stupid romanticism of baseball that we all feel dumb for still getting filled with, but hope does spring eternal every year, and for players as much as teams. In Ramirez, we have a former total phenom and superstar now finding himself on the edge of the game, with a foot all the way out of it. It’s a typical tale, and the kind we hate to hear. Age is just a bastard sometimes, and seeing it ravage such a former talent of that skill and ability is a bit sad. We know he’s never going to return to the heights of the turn of the decade, but something valuable would sure be nice. What would that look like though? I do want it to work out for Ramirez, but he’s going to have a problem finding a place on the team. The outfield, for all its lack of established talent, is kind of stuffed, and it’s not like he can do anything else besides DH and play first base. So his own future with the Indians hinges on the relative success of a handful of outfielders, Jake Bauers, and Carlos Santana. Those last two are sure to make the team, so he’s going to have to earn it by being more than a nice guy in the clubhouse. Which makes the spring so frustrating. As of this writing, he’s 3-for-15 with three runs batted in. I haven’t seen whether he’s hitting the ball mega-hard or working counts or in the best shape of his life or anything like that. And that’s what he needs to do to make the team.Aside from making the team Matt Andriese Jersey , a sense of realism is helpful, even if it is a bummer. It’s not like Ramirez is going to post that .342/.410/.543 line he did when he placed second in MVP voting. Maybe in a platoon situation that’s almost approachable, like when Ryan Raburn popped a .901 OPS over 86 games for Cleveland facing almost purely lefties. Outside of that, though, is it really so much to ask for an .800 OPS, or even .750? He hit .286/.361/.505 with 30 dingers in 147 games as recently as 2016. Admittedly that’s a long time for an athlete, and he fell right off a cliff since then, but tapping into something close to that would put Ramirez above a good number of other offensive options for the Indians. Though even that isn’t that realistic. The realistic version of Hanley is a Jason Giambi circa 2013, when Big G was little more than a pinch hitter and overpaid bench coach. The Indians don’t need the second thing, but tapping into whatever little lightning is left in that bat is about the value that he can bring to the table unless he finds the fountain of youth or something incredible happens. Baseball does age you very quickly, and kicks you to the curb the minute you’ve lost that little bit of edge that once made you great. Ramirez was one of the best in the world for a while there. Talent like that always departs, but not all at once. Even if it’s been a sharp slide for him, there’s got to be something still there. Talent will always win out, but over a long season—and maybe in a playoff series against a former team—a little magic can go a long way too.