In every era of baseball, there have been some starting pitchers who have defined their generation.
For example, in the 1960s, it was Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson racking up numbers that were so dominant that MLB ended up lowering the height of the pitchers' mound entering the 1969 season. Furthermore, the American League added the designated hitter in 1973 in hopes of generating more offense.
In this generation, one of those defining pitchers is undoubtedly Justin Verlander, and he'll put a bow on his illustrious career on Saturday as he makes his final start.
In parts of 21 seasons in the Majors, Verlander has won the AL Rookie of the Year Award, the AL MVP Award in 2011 and three Cy Young Awards (and finished in the top five in a season six more times). He also is eighth on MLB's all-time strikeout list with 3,554 and he's one of only six pitchers to ever throw three no-hitters in his career.
Before he makes his final MLB start, let's look back on those three no-hitters.
June 12, 2007: Tigers vs. Brewers
Comerica Park opened in 2000, but in June 2007, it still had not had a no-hitter. In his second full season in the Majors, Verlander notched the stadium's first no-hitter in a dominant Interleague start vs. Milwaukee.
Despite walking four batters, Verlander still pounded the zone as 73 of his 112 pitches were for strikes.
Verlander utilized his fastball -- which reached as high as 102 mph that evening -- and his lethal curveball to strike out 12 Brewers, which was his career high at the time. Ten of those 12 strikeouts were swinging, including each of his final six strikeouts. In the ninth, he only needed 11 pitches to strike out two and retire shortstop J.J. Hardy on a fly ball to Magglio Ordonez for the final out.
"With one strike left and two outs, I stepped off the back of the mound and really just took a breather," Verlander said at the time. "... I wasn't soaking it up or anything, I was just trying to calm myself down. ... That was probably the best stuff I ever had."
May 7, 2011: Tigers vs. Blue Jays
2011 was, arguably, the best year of Verlander's career, as he won both the AL Cy Young and AL MVP Awards after going 24-5 with an AL-leading 2.40 ERA. He also pitched 251 innings in the regular season (not to mention 20 1/3 more innings in the playoffs), a staggering amount by the standards of starting pitchers 15 years later.
One of those 24 wins (a number that has not been matched since) was Verlander's second career no-hitter, this one against the Toronto Blue Jays on the road.
In this no-hitter, Verlander wasn't as dominant with the strikeouts as he only had four. However, an eighth-inning walk to J.P. Arencibia was the only baserunner he allowed. Three pitches later, Arencibia was retired on an inning-ending double play.
Even with that, the no-hitter still nearly didn't happen.
In the fifth inning, Edwin Encarnación almost broke the no-hitter up when he hit a liner off Verlander's right arm. Verlander ran over to the third-base foul line to get the ball and he threw a one-hopper to first baseman Miguel Cabrera, who made a great scoop to get the out on a bang-bang play.
Verlander's arm was fine, as he showed by finishing off his 108-pitch masterpiece.
Sept. 1, 2019: Astros vs. Blue Jays
There must be something that Verlander loves about pitching against the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.
He recorded his third career no-hitter (and second at Rogers Centre) eight years after his second career no-no. Pitching for the Astros, this no-hitter was unique in a few ways.
Verlander struck out 14 batters and allowed only one baserunner (a one-out walk to Cavan Biggio -- the son of former Astro and Hall of Famer Craig Biggio -- in the first inning) to make it one of the most dominant no-hitters in MLB history.
Additionally, Verlander didn't have a lead until the ninth inning, as the game was scoreless until Abraham Toro hit a two-run homer in the ninth.
With his 120-pitch effort, Verlander joined an exclusive list as the sixth pitcher to throw three no-hitters, following Larry Corcoran, Cy Young, Bob Feller, Sandy Koufax and Nolan Ryan. He became the third pitcher to throw multiple no-hitters against the same team and the first to do so on the road.
"I’d be lying if I said I didn’t know that the list of guys that have thrown three [no-hitters] instead of two gets pretty small," said Verlander at the time. "... Definitely a big hurdle to get over, and a special moment for me.”