DETROIT — Hunter Brown was in fifth grade when a classmate at St. Isaac Jogues Catholic School won a contest. Justin Verlander and Detroit Tigers infielder Carlos Guillén visited the elementary school. Inside a small classroom, a young Brown got a picture with the ace he idolized.

Years later, Brown became teammates with Verlander on the Houston Astros. He showed Verlander the picture.

“I don’t think he was too fond of how old it made him feel,” Brown joked at his locker Monday.

All these years later, Brown still holds his Detroit identity close to his heart. He can rattle off memories of the Tigers teams he watched growing up in suburban St. Clair Shores. Magglio Ordóñez’s home run to send the Tigers to the 2006 World Series. The electricity every time Joel Zumaya stepped on the mound. Jered Weaver’s jawing with Guillén after a bat flip in 2011. Austin Jackson’s getting traded in the middle of a game. All those and more still flow through his mind.

He attended Detroit’s Wayne State University as an unheralded college player. He blossomed into a top prospect with an undeniable fastball. The Astros selected him in the fifth round of the 2019 draft. In 2022, Brown pitched his second MLB game in Detroit, and he held the Tigers to two runs over six innings. He started that game as a young up-and-comer with so much left to prove.

Brown still keeps a residence in the Detroit area. He’s been known to walk his dog, Whiskey, around the downtown streets and even around Comerica Park. He still trains at 2SP Sports Performance in Madison Heights. He keeps in contact with his friends from high school and remains loyal to New York Deli off 10 Mile Road. If you hope to bump into a big-leaguer in metro Detroit during the gray of winter, it is more likely to be Brown than it is any active member of the Tigers.

Brown has pitched in Detroit twice more since that first outing. He has a lifetime 2.81 ERA in Comerica Park. He even faced the Tigers during last year’s playoffs in Houston, a game that ended up marking the end of the Astros’ season.

Now, Brown is prepping for his latest Detroit homecoming. Friends and family will fill the stands. And something about this one feels different.

This time, Brown will pitch not as a touted prospect or a rising stud but instead as the owner of a 2.45 ERA and one of the premier pitchers in the sport. He will happen to face off against Tarik Skubal, the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner, one of few pitchers who could stand in the way of Brown’s claiming his own piece of hardware.

“Detroit ties are cool,” Skubal said. “It would be cooler if he was wearing our jersey.”

Tarik Skubal leads qualifying American League starters with a 2.42 ERA this season. (Lon Horwedel / Imagn Images)

In Tuesday’s matchup, there is something at stake, both for the pitchers who will step on the rubber and for the teams they represent. The Tigers and Astros are among a handful of teams vying for the top two seeds in the American League. Entering Tuesday’s matchup, the Tigers held the No. 1 seed, just a half game up on the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Astros are clinging to a small lead in the AL West. But if the season ended today, they would be headed to another three-game snakepit in the AL Wild Card Series.

The atmosphere, then, could be terse as two of the league’s best pitchers square off. Skubal’s and Brown’s lockers were near each other during this year’s All-Star Game. They chatted briefly. They observed one another going about their work and their routines. There is mutual respect among such stalwarts.

“He’s got good stuff, pitches in the zone, strikes guys out, kind of does everything that you want as a starting pitcher,” Skubal said. “It’s why he was at the All-Star Game this year, and that’s why he’s got the numbers he’s got.”

“What’s really not to like?” Brown said of Skubal. “The guy throws a bunch of strikes. Doesn’t walk people. Reigning Cy Young (winner). So he’s doing his thing. But I know the guys will come out ready to try to jump on him and put us in a position to win the game.”

Skubal is no stranger to such matchups. He faced off against Zack Wheeler on ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” earlier this month. He started opposite Paul Skenes at the All-Star Game. He is a fan of the sport and enjoys watching other elite starters from the dugout.

But when he’s throwing in the same game as a pitcher such as Brown, there might be less of an appreciation for pitching artistry as it unfolds.

“Really good pitching, I really don’t like to pitch against it,” Skubal said. “I’d rather sit in the dugout and watch the guys go because when I’m going against (it), I’m worried about how many outs are in the inning. I’m not really worrying about how they’re getting it done.”

Skubal and Brown were underrecruited high schoolers who have blossomed into two of the league’s finest pitchers. Skubal’s upbringing in the small town of Kingman, Ariz., helped tell the story of a pitcher who was overlooked until he morphed into must-see TV.

Brown’s Detroit roots fed into the narrative of a pitcher who was nobody until he became somebody.

Even as he tries to best Brown on Tuesday, Skubal has an appreciation for the moment. He has pitched in front of old college friends in Seattle, in front of immediate family in Arizona and in front of other relatives in California.

For Brown, this is another homecoming, albeit with the stakes a little more magnified.

“You get to throw in front of family and the people that you don’t see because you play this game,” Skubal said. “You get to play this game and perform in front of them, and it kind of makes all those sacrifices worth it.”

(Top photo: Alex Slitz / Getty Images)