HOUSTON -- The Tigers faced two of the best pitchers in baseball on consecutive nights. Though it would have been a storybook ending to have beaten them both, they had to settle for a split in the final two games of a four-game set against the Astros.

Tigers starter Jordan Zimmermann was solid through five innings in the finale at Minute Maid Park on Thursday, but Gerrit Cole was typically dominant and steered the Astros to a 6-3 win. The Tigers dropped the series, three games to one, to fall to 2-5 with three games left on their most challenging road trip.

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As was the case the night before, when they faced former Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander, Detroit hitters mustered two hits off Cole. Unlike the previous game, however, those two hits were not home runs. Base hits by Ronny Rodriguez and Victor Reyes were overshadowed by a sterling outing by Cole, who struck out 12 across seven innings.

During a time when “character building” has been a main theme of these late stages of the Tigers’ season, the series with the Astros was, if nothing else, a good learning experience for this rookie-heavy roster.

“You're going up against the elite guys,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “You see what makes them great, and they're getting that firsthand by standing in the box. [Cole] -- that's a power arm. That's an understatement. A really big arm over there against us and we punched out a bunch. You know what, we faced, on this road trip, from Tampa here, a lot of really good pitching. We call it a learning process, and that's what it is.”

Zimmermann left the game with his only major blemish a fourth-inning two-run homer by Alex Bregman. The veteran right-hander, making his second start since returning from the injured list, retired the next six batters in order, recording strikeouts of Martin Maldonado and George Springer in his final inning. 

Bregman was 0-for-10 against Zimmermann before that at-bat.

“I knew I had pretty good success against him,” Zimmerman said. “I'd been throwing him a lot of sliders, and [with a] 3-1 [count], I thought I could get a fastball in on him. I figured maybe he was sitting slider after I got him out so many times with a slider.

“I got in there. I just wish it was up a few more inches. It probably jams him enough to where it's a popup. That's the way it goes.”

The Tigers avoided a shutout with two ninth-inning homers off right-hander Joe Biagini. John Hicks, one of the heroes of Wednesday’s win, launched a two-run pinch-hit homer, and Niko Goodrum, who had missed four games with a sore groin, followed with a solo shot, narrowing the Tigers’ deficit by three.

Then things got really interesting.

The Tigers produced two more baserunners. Biagini walked Travis Demeritte. Then Rodriguez, facing closer Roberto Osuna, also walked. That brought Dawel Lugo, representing the potential tying run, to the plate, and he nearly delivered. Lugo sent a 97 mph fastball to right field, but Josh Reddick leaped and caught the ball inches in front of the wall, ending the game.

“We got their closer in,” Gardenhire said. “Unfortunately, Lugo just didn't get enough of it. He put it to the wall, almost out of the ballpark, which would have been really entertaining.”

Said Lugo: "I thought it was a homer. I was waiting for that pitch. I was waiting for the fastball. I hit the fastball, but, unfortunately, it wasn't gone. Really, honestly, I thought it was gone."

This loss included a poor showing by the Tigers’ bullpen, which up until then was a bright spot through the team’s stops at Tampa Bay and Houston. In the finale against the Astros, three relievers combined to yield four earned runs across three innings. That’s more than half the total number of runs the 'pen had allowed (seven) in the first six games of the trip.

Though the two teams are on opposite ends from a talent standpoint -- the Tigers are in the midst of a reload, whereas the Astros are built to contend for a World Series title -- there was not a single blowout in the series. The Tigers were outscored by the Astros, but not by a large cumulative margin: 18-12.

“I thought we did a nice job of pitching in this whole series, really, against a good team,” Gardenhire said. “And we played defense. It was a good series. Even though we lost three out of four, we had chances.”