Verlander's curtain call lands in Pittsburgh, where the Pirates have no margin left

Justin Verlander is making his final career start, and the opponent is Pittsburgh — a team at 78-78 with six games remaining and an elimination number of one. The Pirates are seven games back of the last wild card spot, which makes the playoff math essentially academic, but the game still gets played.

Verlander's career needs no elaboration here. Multiple Cy Young awards, a no-hitter or two, well north of 3,000 strikeouts — he is a first-ballot Hall of Famer by any reasonable measure, and whatever team drew his last start was always going to be a footnote in someone else's story. That team turned out to be Pittsburgh.

For the Pirates, the more pressing concern is what surrounds the game. Braxton Ashcraft remains on the 15-day IL, Mitch Keller has been on the 60-day IL, and the rotation has been running short for weeks. Paul Skenes is 11-11 with a 3.84 ERA on the season; Bubba Chandler and Jared Jones round out a staff that has had to piece things together down the stretch. The last 30 games have gone 18-12, which is the best sustained stretch of their year, but it came too late to matter in the standings.

The Pirates will show up, take their at-bats, and try to win a baseball game. Verlander will take the mound for the last time. Both things can be true at once without either one needing to carry the other's weight.