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DETROIT — New York Mets star pitchers Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer are returning to the mound, perhaps fittingly in Detroit against a team they helped have its last run of success.

“It’s funny how baseball works,” Verlander said Tuesday, surrounded by Detroit and New York-area reporters at Comerica Park.

The 40-year-old Verlander is scheduled to make his Mets debut on Thursday against the Tigers, who drafted the right-hander No. 2 overall in 2004 and traded him to Houston in 2017.

Verlander’s season-opening start was delayed due to a back injury.

“Obviously, I wouldn’t like to start the year on the IL at all,” he said. “But as baseball always tends to have some funny stories and connections, here I am, my first start as a Met in Detroit.”

The 38-year-old Scherzer (2-1, 3.72 ERA) is due to pitch Wednesday for the first time since April 19, when he was ejected for violating MLB’s foreign substance policy.

The series-opening game Tuesday night was postponed due to rain and will be made up as part of a doubleheader on Wednesday.

Scherzer, who pitched for the Tigers from 2010 to 2014 before signing with Washington, is returning from a 10-game suspension. He initially challenged the punishment before dropping an appeal, per the team’s wishes.

The right-hander claimed the stickiness was caused by rosin and sweat, not by a foreign substance, but declined to say what changes he would make moving forward.

“I’m not going to go into the process because if you have a process, that’s cheating,” Scherzer said.

Scherzer was just the third pitcher suspended since baseball’s crackdown on sticky substances started in June 2021.

The Mets, who are in the highly competitive NL East, are happy to have the three-time Cy Young winners in the rotation after investing a lot of money in them during the offseason.

Verlander signed an $86.67 million, two-year deal after he went 18-4 with a 1.75 ERA in 28 starts last year, helped the Astros win the World Series and won his third Cy Young.

The Mets gave Scherzer a $130 million, three-year contract after he went 15-4 — going undefeated after May 30 — with the Nationals and Los Angeles Dodgers.

“Just excited to be back with Max,” Verlander said. “We kind of went our separate ways and to come back here at this stage in our career has been such a blessing. We’ve had a lot of talks about pitching and baseball, and reconnecting, it’s been great.”

Verlander and Scherzer led a rotation that lifted Detroit to four straight division titles, the AL Championship Series three years in a row and the 2012 World Series.

“It was one hell of a run,” Verlander said.

Detroit has been in a rebuilding mode without many signs of improvement since trading Verlander, losing 114 games in 2019 and 96 games last year.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” Verlander said. “Everybody kind of saw it coming as pieces started to be traded away.”

The Tigers fired general manager Al Avila during last season and hired San Francisco Giants general manager Scott Harris to lead the latest attempt to get the team winning again.

“I’m always rooting for the best for the organization,” Verlander said. “It seems like they’re bringing in some pieces to start turning things around.”

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Ohtani’s blast caps 6-run 9th in wild Dodgers rally

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Ohtani's blast caps 6-run 9th in wild Dodgers rally

PHOENIX — Shohei Ohtani hit a three-run homer to cap a six-run ninth inning and the Los Angeles Dodgers rallied for a wild 14-11 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night.

The Dodgers trailed 11-8 entering the ninth inning after blowing an early five-run lead.

Andy Pages and Enrique Hernandez hit consecutive run-scoring doubles to open the ninth inning against Kevin Ginkel (0-1). Max Muncy tied it at 11-11 with a run-scoring single and Ryan Thompson replaced Ginkel to face Ohtani.

It didn’t go well for Arizona.

Ohtani, who doubled twice, fell into a 1-2 hole before launching his 12th homer near the pool deck in right to put the Dodgers up 14-11. He finished with four RBIs.

Tanner Scott worked a perfect ninth save in 11 chances.

The Dodgers roughed up Eduardo Rodriguez to take an 8-3 lead through three innings, but couldn’t hold it.

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit a tying grand slam in the fifth inning, then Ketel Marte and Randal Grichuk hit solo shots off Alex Vesia (1-0) in the eighth to put Arizona up 11-8.

Pages finished with three RBIs and Hernández extended the Dodgers’ homer streak to 13 straight games with a solo shot in the second inning.

Marte homered twice for the Diamondbacks. Rodriguez allowed eight runs on nine hits in 2⅔ innings.

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Marchand’s OT score cuts Panthers’ deficit to 2-1

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Marchand's OT score cuts Panthers' deficit to 2-1

SUNRISE, Fla. — Brad Marchand scored on a deflected shot at 15:27 of overtime and the Florida Panthers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 on Friday night to cut their deficit in the Eastern Conference semifinal series to 2-1.

Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe and Jonah Gadjovich scored for Florida, which got 27 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky. Evan Rodrigues had two assists for the Panthers. They 13-2 in their last 15 playoff overtime games.

John Tavares scored twice, and Matthew Knies and Morgan Rielly also scored for the Maple Leafs. Joseph Woll stopped 32 shots.

Game 4 will be in Sunrise on Sunday night.

Florida erased deficits of 2-0 and 3-1, and that’s been almost impossible to do against Toronto this season.

By the numbers, it was all looking good for the Maple Leafs.

  • They were 30-3-0 when leading after the first period, including playoffs, the second-best record in the league.

  • They were 38-8-2, the league’s third-best record when scoring first.

  • They had blown only 11 leads all season, none in the playoffs.

  • They were 44-3-1 in games where they led by two goals or more.

Combine all that with Toronto having won all 11 of its previous best-of-seven series when taking a 2-0 lead at home, Florida being 0-5 in series where it dropped both Games 1 and 2, and leaguewide, teams facing 0-2 deficits come back to win those series only about 14% of the time.

But Marchand — a longtime Toronto playoff nemesis from his days in Boston — got the biggest goal of Florida’s season, rendering all those numbers moot for now.

The Leafs got two goals that deflected in off of Panthers defensemen: Tavares’ second goal nicked the glove of Gustav Forsling on its way past Bobrovsky for a 3-1 lead, and Rielly’s goal redirected off Seth Jones’ leg to tie it with 9:04 left in the third.

Knies scored 23 seconds into the game, the second time Toronto had a 1-0 lead in the first minute of this series. Tavares made it 2-0 at 5:57 and just like that, the Panthers were in trouble.

A diving Barkov threw the puck at the night and saw it carom in off a Toronto stick to get Florida on the board — only for Tavares to score again early in the second for a 3-1 Leafs lead.

Florida needed a break. It came.

Reinhart was credited with a goal after Woll thought he covered up the puck following a scrum in front of the net. But after review, it was determined the puck had crossed the line. Florida had life, the building was loud again and about a minute later, Verhaeghe tied it at 3-3.

Gadjovich made it 4-3 late in the second, before Rielly tied it midway through the third.

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Vegas’ Roy dodges suspension for G2 cross-check

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Vegas' Roy dodges suspension for G2 cross-check

NEW YORK — Vegas Golden Knights forward Nicolas Roy was fined but not suspended Friday for cross-checking the Edmonton OilersTrent Frederic in the face in overtime of Game 2 of the teams’ second-round playoff series.

The NHL Department of Player Safety announced the fine of $7,813, the maximum allowed under the collective bargaining agreement, after a disciplinary hearing with him.

Roy attempted to play the puck while it was airborne but made contact with Frederic’s head instead, resulting in a laceration for the Oilers forward.

Frederic briefly exited the game before making a quick return to the ice. Edmonton, however, failed to capitalize on the ensuing five-minute power play but won not long after on a goal by Leon Draisaitl from Connor McDavid.

Vegas trails the best-of-seven series 2-0 with Game 3 on Saturday night at Edmonton.

Information from The Associated Press and Field Level Media was used in this report.

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