Justin Verlander makes teary farewell to 21-year career as Tigers rally to beat Pirates 4-3

DETROIT (AP) — Justin Verlander made a teary farewell, accompanied by his 7-year-old daughter as he left a major league mound for the final time in the Detroit Tigers' 4-3 come-from-behind win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday.

Eduardo Valencia hit a game-ending, two-run homer off Mason Montgomery (6-4) in a three-run ninth that included Kevin McGonigle’s RBI groundout. Valencia became the first Detroit rookie with a walk-off homer while trailing since Lou Whitaker on July 28, 1978, according to Major League Baseball.

Verlander allowed two runs and five hits in 5 1/3 innings with one walk and six strikeouts in his 91-pitch outing. The 43-year-old right-hander was making his second start of the year and first since March 30 in a season derailed by a sore hip and hamstring injury.

After Brandon Lowe hit a foul popup starting the sixth, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch walked from the dugout toward the plate and pointed toward the seats. Genevieve Verlander, wearing a Tigers jersey with her dad’s name and number, sprinted to the mound and hugged her father, who reached down to embrace her and started shaking and sobbing.

Verlander finished 266-159 in 557 starts with a 3.33 ERA and 3,560 strikeouts, eighth on the career list.

Pittsburgh took a 2-0 lead on solo homers by Brandon Lowe in the fourth and Nick Gonzales.

Javier Báez hit an RBI double in the sixth, and Bryan Reynolds extended Pittsburgh's lead to 3-1 with a run-scoring triple in the eighth.

Jacob Waguespack (2-2) pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings.

Pittsburgh (81-80) needs one win for its first winning season since 2018.

The Pirates' Kirby Yates made his first career start after 517 relief appearances, then said he is retiring. The 39-year-old right-hander allowed two hits over 1 2/3 innings.

Pirates center fielder Oneil Cruz left in the third inning. He fell awkwardly while trying to field McGonigle’s bloop single in the first.

Tigers RHP River Ryan (0-0, 0.00 ERA) and Pirates RHP Jared Jones (5-6, 3.87) start Sunday in the final game before Comerica Park's name changes to Fifth Third Park for 2027.

See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Home plate umpire Laz Diaz, right, rules the Pittsburgh Pirates' final out of the fifth inning in a baseball game as Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Justin Verlander reacts d, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Jose Juarez)

Genevieve Verlander, left, hugs her dad, Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Justin Verlander, during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Jose Juarez)

Kate Upton, left foreground, hugs her husband, Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Justin Verlander, after he was taken out of the game during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Jose Juarez)

Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Justin Verlander (35) acknowledges the crowd after being taken out of the game during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Jose Juarez)

Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Justin Verlander (35) and his daughter, Genevieve Verlander, leave the field after Verlander was taken out of the game during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Jose Juarez)

DUBLIN (AP) — European nations are seeking an envoy to represent them in talks on ending the Russia-Ukraine war, concerned that a U.S.-backed process will leave them sidelined and Kyiv vulnerable as Moscow and Washington decide the fate of a conflict that has roiled the continent.

Whether that should be one individual or more and who it might be is being debated as leaders from the 27-nation European Union meet Friday at a summit in Dublin. Senior EU officials and politicians have been suggested, but there is not yet a consensus.

What the job might entail is also unclear and contested. But there is broad agreement by governments from the U.K. to Ukraine on the need for Europe to join the ongoing negotiations involving Moscow, Kyiv and Washington.

Ukraine is eager for backup from its European allies, as it's reluctant to leave the talks solely in the hands of a U.S. administration that has often seemed to lean toward Moscow’s views. Russia does not want European countries involved in direct negotiations, complaining they are financing and supplying Ukraine’s military effort.

And the Europeans do not trust U.S. President Donald Trump to negotiate on their behalf after a series of tense standoffs over trade, Greenland and conflicts in Iran and Ukraine.

“Without Europeans, there is no support for Ukraine,” French President Emmanuel Macron said at the European Political Community meeting in Dublin on Thursday. “There is no more U.S. support."

“At the end of the day, we will be the ones to define and decide for our future security as Europeans,” he said.

European leaders fear Russian President Vladimir Putin will press Trump to back a peace settlement that weakens not just Ukraine but broader European security. Putin has demanded NATO troops be pulled back from Russia’s borders and that no European forces be deployed in Ukraine.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham rejected the idea that Europe was being sidelined during peace negotiations, saying “there are European voices in the room.”

“All the leaders I’ve spoken to today are determined to put a bit of a ring of steel around Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as part of all of this to back him up to the hilt, and that’s what we will do,” he said.

As envoys from Washington, Moscow and Kyiv met in Abu Dhabi, several European countries, including the U.K., France and Germany, attended discussions nearby.

Supporters of a single envoy, like Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, argue that their absence has let individual countries or small groups engage in freelance diplomacy.

“There are too many different groupings discussing the issue,” she said.

Meloni has criticized a series of seemingly uncoordinated initiatives, including a call to Putin by Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, that she said could undermine European interests.

She has increasingly pushed the idea of a common EU representative for Europe to speak with “a single, authoritative voice” and requested a decision by Friday in Dublin to be formalized in December in coordination with non-EU partners in Europe like Britain and Norway.

Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said that “Europe has to have a coherent negotiating place at the table, but it’s not just the European Union" and called for “a wider European continent perspective” that includes the U.K., Norway, Canada and others.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov argued that for Europe to join peace talks, it first must name a representative. “The Europeans squabble like spiders in a jar. If someone takes the initiative to establish contact with the Russian side, those people face ostracism.”

The question of who represents Europe is an old one. Europe itself is loosely defined. Is it the 27-nation EU, the 32-nation NATO military alliance made up mostly of European countries, the 29-nation Schengen zone, or the 47-nation European Political Community?

That has frustrated Washington in the past and present.

After this week's U.S.-brokered talks between Ukraine and Russia in the United Arab Emirates, envoy Jared Kushner said that “if Europe could identify one person to speak on their behalf, that would be a bigger achievement than getting the Russians to include them in the negotiation.”

That echoes the famous quote attributed erroneously to former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger: “Who do I call if I want to call Europe?”

After meeting with Putin in Moscow, Kushner and fellow envoy Steve Witkoff flew to Dublin to brief Zelenskyy. Kushner said in a statement on X that Moscow had agreed to “include our European partners” in the next round of negotiations to “address the broader postwar European security arrangements alongside the territorial issues between Ukraine and Russia.”

Zelenskyy too said the Europeans would not be on the sidelines. “We are involving European representatives even more actively in diplomacy so that they can have an equal seat at the negotiating table. Ukraine always defends the interests of all of Europe,” he said on X.

France, Germany and the U.K., the region’s top three economies collectively known as the European trio or E3, have so far been the most engaged European body in negotiations. But while London is deeply involved with Ukraine, it left the EU in 2020.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Thursday that the E3 is “a proven format” for diplomacy.

But an E3 envoy would leave out the other 25 EU nations and rankle smaller nations like those that border Russia and Belarus on the bloc’s “eastern flank” which face constant hybrid threats, including influence campaigns and disruptive drones.

Some back a top EU official for the job. Even inside Brussels, however, there are two leading contenders: European Council President Antonio Costa and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.

Costa's current role is to represent national leaders. A former prime minister of Portugal, he spent much of the past year visiting capitals across the bloc.

“European security cannot be discussed without a European voice at the table,” Costa said in Dublin on Thursday. “That European voice needs to be a team effort between European nations, the European Union and NATO.”

But earlier this year, Costa faced down criticism within the EU after his office set up a hush-hush backchannel with Moscow.

Kallas, a former prime minister of Estonia, could also lay claim to the position of envoy.

She said in Dublin that the E3 represents the “big countries” but then asked “who is representing the European Union?"

"Americans are representing American interests. Europeans are representing European interests,” Kallas said, adding that the EU’s foundational treaties are “very, very clear” that she and Costa were appointed in 2024 to represent the bloc in “security matters.”

Kallas, however, has had a bumpy track record with U.S. diplomats as Washington and Brussels sparred over trade and Ukraine. She's also acknowledged issues between her office, the EU's External Action Service, and the European Commission.

Another name that has been floated is Stubb, the Finnish president. He has warm relations with Trump and met in Oslo with U.S. envoys Witkoff and Kushner in October. A week after that, he called Putin with Støre, the Norwegian prime minister. Stubb spoke with Zelenskyy by phone on Tuesday.

Urgency is needed in Europe, said Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs, pointing to recent cyberattacks, arson and a drone attack in Leipzig, Germany.

“The threats are real," he said. "We’re going to see more and more and more because that’s the way how they can stop the support of Ukraine. That’s what they want to achieve.”

Associated Press writers Geir Moulson in Berlin and Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, speaks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during a meeting of the European Political Community (EPC), in Dublin, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, speaks with Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz during a round table meeting of the European Political Community (EPC), in Dublin, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham, left, sits next to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with other European leaders in attendance, during the Ukraine security meeting as part of the European Political Community (EPC) summit in Dublin, Ireland, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP, Pool)

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron meet during the European Political Community (EPC) Summit in Dublin, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026.(AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stands next to French President Emmanuel Macron, right, and Ireland's Prime Minister Micheál Martin as they pose for a family photo of all participants during the European Political Community (EPC) Summit in Dublin, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026.(AP Photo/Peter Morrison)