Texas may have better team, but Detroit has Justin Verlander

Reporting from Arlington, Texas -- Mike Napoli has no interest in simulating the circumstances surrounding the best at-bat of his life against Justin Verlander, the Detroit Tigers ace who will start Game 1 of the American League Championship Series against the Texas Rangers on Saturday night.

That would have required the Texas slugger and former Angels catcher to spend six or seven hours Friday night in an airplane, squeeze in three hours of sleep and arrive at the Ballpark in Arlington on Saturday with his head spinning.

“It all happened so quickly,” Napoli said of the home run he blasted off Verlander in his first major league at-bat, which helped the Angels beat the Tigers, 7-2, in Comerica Park on May 4, 2006.

“I flew in, got in real late, and we had a day game. It hadn’t sunk in that I was in the big leagues. It was like I went to sleep, woke up and was catching for the Angels. It was something I’ll never forget.”

Napoli was at triple-A Salt Lake the night before. He flew most of the night to get to Detroit, connecting through Atlanta, and his name was in the lineup card when he got to the clubhouse.

In the third inning, Napoli drove a hanging, 1-and-2 curve from Verlander, then a rookie, over the left-center-field wall and into the Angels bullpen, becoming the 92nd player in major league history and the third Angel to homer in his first at-bat.

It’s been all uphill from there.

In 14 at-bats off Verlander since that homer, Napoli has two hits, both singles, five strikeouts and zero runs batted in. Not that there’s any shame in that.

Verlander, armed with a 100-mph fastball, a variety of breaking pitches, the confidence and swagger of a gunslinger and not one ounce of fear, quickly blossomed into one of baseball’s most dominant pitchers.

The 28-year-old right-hander is considered a lock for the AL Cy Young Award this season after going 24-5 with a 2.40 earned-run average and 250 strikeouts in 251 innings.

He was still hitting 100 mph on the Comerica Park speed gun in the eighth inning Monday, when he allowed four runs and six hits and struck out 11 in Detroit’s pivotal 5-4 win over the New York Yankees in Game 3 of the division series.

Texas third baseman Adrian Beltre has hit 15 homers in his last 20 games, including three in Tuesday’s division series-clinching win over Tampa Bay, but as hot as he’s been, he still winced Friday when asked about facing Verlander.

“Ooooh,” said Beltre, a .281 career hitter — nine for 32 — against Verlander with one homer and three RBIs. “You have to look for one location, one pitch. He can throw you any pitch in any count. That’s what makes him so tough.”

Verlander will be on regular rest in Game 1 of the ALCS, thanks to Manager Jim Leyland’s controversial decision to hold him out of Thursday night’s dramatic winner-take-all, 3-2 victory in Yankee Stadium. And he could be the great equalizer in a best-of-seven series that appears tilted toward Texas.

The Rangers, who reached the World Series for the first time in franchise history last season, have a deeper and more potent lineup that features Beltre, Josh Hamilton, Napoli, Michael Young and Ian Kinsler.

They have a deeper and more versatile bullpen, especially with lanky right-hander Alexi Ogando, who may have the best stuff on the Rangers staff, pitching in relief. They have more range on defense and superior speed on the bases.

But Verlander can shut down any team at any time, and if he beats the Rangers twice, the Tigers, who have two other highly capable starters in Max Scherzer and Doug Fister, would need to win only two of the other five games to advance to the World Series.

“Our staff has the ability to have success against their lineup,” Scherzer said. “One through nine, they have quality hitters. You have to respect everybody in their lineup. But the biggest thing is you can’t fear anyone.

“It’s the same with the Yankees. You have to be aggressive. You can’t fall behind, walk guys, make mistakes, because they’ll burn you in a heartbeat.”

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com

twitter.com/MikeDiGiovanna