HOUSTON — Justin Verlander pitched a two-hitter and lost, allowing homers to John Hicks and Ronny Rodriguez, and the Detroit Tigers beat the Houston Astros 2-1 on Wednesday night in a historic upset.
The Tigers closed as a +435 underdog at Caesars Sportsbook, making their win against the Astros the largest upset in an MLB game in the past 15 seasons, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
Caesars also had the Astros close as a -560 favorite, making them the heaviest favorite in a game in at least the past 15 seasons, according to sports betting database BetLabsSports.com, and likely longer.
Roxy Roxborough, a longtime oddsmaker and bettor, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal last week that he remembered a few -500 favorites in years past involving pitchers such as Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez, but not many.
Clayton Kershaw and the Los Angeles Dodgers were -485 favorites over the Atlanta Braves in 2016, and earlier this month, the Astros were -460 road favorites over the Baltimore Orioles. Houston lost that game 8-7 in what was at the time the largest upset since the Washington Nationals beat the Minnesota Twins as +395 underdogs in 2007.
Hicks led off the ninth with a tiebreaking blast to left-center field off Verlander (15-5), who leads the majors in strikeouts with 239 but ranks second in homers allowed with 33.
The veteran right-hander retired the first 14 batters, with six strikeouts, before Rodriguez homered to the seats in right with two outs in the fifth. Verlander sat down another 10 straight before Hicks connected.
Houston had just four hits before Robinson Chirinos belted his 14th homer to left-center on Tyler Alexander’s first pitch of the seventh to tie it at 1.
ESPN’s David Purdum and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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