LAKELAND, Fla. — As a ballplaying kid in central Virginia, Connelly Early knew the closest big league team (the Nationals) and maintained a special place on his wall for a poster of his favorite pitcher (then-Reds star and now-teammate Aroldis Chapman).
Early also rooted for the hometown hero: Justin Verlander, who two decades prior grew up a couple of towns over, close enough that Early still routinely drives by the Verlander family home amid his regular routes.
So when Early, 23, drew the start for the Red Sox against the Tigers on Friday, opposite Verlander, 43, it was a special occasion — for both, for different reasons.
“I grew up a fan of his. He was always a big name,” said Early, who remembers the Verlander paraphernalia adorning Old Dominion University’s facility, where Early sometimes played. “It’s definitely a little crazy [to pitch against him], but just going out there and throwing the ball.”
Early did exactly that, navigating 3⅔ scoreless innings on his prescribed 50-or-so pitches in the Sox’ 11-3 exhibition loss. He held the Tigers to two hits and one walk and struck out four, benefiting from some hard contact that turned into outs. As the outing evolved, Early was glad to “feel more like myself,” he said.
“He made some adjustments, and the fastball had life at the end,” manager Alex Cora said.
Between innings, Early watched Verlander work — in his first game wearing a Tigers uniform since 2017. He returned to his original club last month on a one-year deal.
“It’s awesome that he’s back with the Tigers,” Early said. “Obviously, when he came off the mound a couple of times, he got a standing ovation, which was pretty sick. It’s cool to see at the start of my career.”
Verlander acknowledged being a tad more nervous than normal for even a spring training outing. The three-time Cy Young Award winner hasn’t committed to playing past this season, giving his Detroit return a bit of a swan song feel.
“Walking out there to hear the fans, I think I’m going to have to really focus on not being emotional this year,” said Verlander, who added that he is trying to “be present” and “enjoy it.” “I don’t know how much longer I’m going to play. I’m not sitting here saying I came back here and this is it, I want to retire. I don’t know. But I know there’s not a lot of time left.”
Big swing
Over parts of three innings, Verlander gave up two runs, both on Kristian Campbell’s home run in the first.
Campbell found significant satisfaction in working a 10-pitch at-bat, then launching a down-and-away sweeper beyond the left-field wall — off “a legend,” as he described Verlander.
It was something of an exhale moment for Campbell, who is batting .211 with a .760 OPS in Grapefruit League play.
“I’m starting to feel comfortable and putting good at-bats together,” said Campbell, whose well-documented rookie struggles yielded an offseason of soul-searching and swing change. “It’s just good to finally see some production. Finally, something out of the infield.”
Cora said: “We always preach the process. We always do. But … he got rewarded. It was good.”
Keeping track
Cora was pleased to see the Sox-centric highlight of Japan’s 13-0 thrashing of Taiwan in its opening game of the World Baseball Classic: Masataka Yoshida went 2 for 3 with a walk, an RBI, and two runs scored.
Cora even texted Yoshida, complimenting him on aggressively taking third base on a throw home after a double.
“I said, good base running,” Cora said. “[Yoshida responded,] ‘Always looking for the next base, push it.’ He’s always polite.”
Meanwhile, at the Fort
Kutter Crawford threw 22 pitches to teammates Nate Baez and Mikey Romero and came away annoyed with his poor command as only 12 were strikes.
That could be a good thing, oddly enough.
It was a sign that the righthander is over the knee and wrist injuries that had him on the injured list all of last season. So even though Romero drilled a two-strike pitch off the wall in left field and also had a single, Crawford got something out of the session.
“I feel fine, but I was frustrated with my execution,” he said. “Physically, I’m trending in the right direction. That part isn’t a problem.”
Crawford feels he would need at least one more day of facing hitters before he gets into a Grapefruit League game. That would push him into about the last week of exhibitions, making him questionable at best for the start of the season.
Baez and Romero also faced Justin Slaten and were 1 for 5 with two strikeouts. The righthander threw 21 pitches and showed a lively fastball.
Rule 5 rules
The Red Sox are trying to make it work with reliever Ryan Watson, a righthander selected in the Rule 5 draft. If he doesn’t win a spot in the bullpen, they will need to offer him back to the Giants.
But Watson has a 10.80 ERA in five Grapefruit League appearances, with just three strikeouts (to two walks) in five innings. On Thursday against the Phillies, his four-seam fastball averaged 92.3 miles per hour.
“He’s been OK stuff-wise. He hasn’t been able to be consistent in getting people out,” Cora said. “We like him. We like him a lot. He’s working hard with [pitching coach Andrew Bailey] as far as velo, trying to get it up there. But right now this is where we’re at.”
The ways of Ward
Braiden Ward had another bunt single and two more steals against Detroit, upping his spring training total to 12 stolen bases … Nick Sogard was sick, Cora said, so the Red Sox scratched him from the lineup … Before the game, Cora caught up with Tigers manager A.J. Hinch, with whom he shares an unusual bond. Cora was Hinch’s bench coach for the 2017 Astros, whose World Series championship was tainted by their illegal sign-stealing scandal. “There’s only three guys that really paid the price for what we did in ’17,” Cora said. “We know how it feels to us and the families. We were down on the ground, and our families suffered for something that we decided to do in ’17, and deservedly so we paid the price. I know how he felt and we can kind of talk about stuff like that. Nobody else can do that.”
Peter Abraham of the Globe staff contributed to this report from Fort Myers, Fla.
Tim Healey can be reached at timothy.healey@globe.com. Follow him @timbhealey.