Verlander has another decision
Veteran reaches 130-inning mark to trigger option
CLEVELAND — When you’ve pitched for as long as Justin Verlander has, and with as much success, every start seems to be accompanied by a different milestone, another box checked.
Verlander’s six scoreless innings in the Astros’ 6-0 win over the Guardians on Thursday brought him to 130 innings pitched this season, triggering is player option for 2023. He is pitching now on a one-year, $25 million contract signed during the offseason before he began a remarkable comeback from Tommy John surgery.
In negotiations with the Astros, Verlander initially sought a noncontingency player option. When owner Jim Crane suggested the 130-inning trigger, Verlander thought it was fair. He pitched 223 innings in his last healthy season in 2019, and 214 innings the year before that. By comparison, 130 seemed attainable.
The 39-year-old has navigated this season with a healthy dose of perspective, but crossing the threshold on Thursday brought him no sense of relief or pride.
“The way I like to pitch, I felt like in my mind the 130-inning mark was, OK, you're going out on a limb paying an old man — after two years away from the game — more than what I would have gotten with the qualifying offer,” Verlander said. “Obviously there were a few other teams in there but you know, I thought that that was a fair ask. I said OK because in my mind if I don't throw 130 innings, I didn't earn the contract that I have this season.”
He went on to say, “So you know, I guess crossing that threshold puts me in a good spot, but by no means am I like thank goodness or was aiming for that. That's not why I play this game. It's not why I pitch. It's not why I try to throw innings.”
Verlander’s decision of whether to stay in Houston or become a free agent and try to sign with another team will wait until the offseason. In the meantime, every display of dominance further accentuates his impending choice.
Verlander won his seventh consecutive start on Thursday, the longest win streak by a majorleague starting pitcher since Cubs righthander Kyle Hendricks won eight straight from May 16-June 22, 2021. It is Verlander’s longest single-season win streak since a career-best 12 consecutive wins during the 2011 season with Detroit.
Verlander leads the majors in ERA (1.73) and wins (15) while ranking second in WHIP (0.85) and third in opponent batting average (.188).
It’s gotten to the point where catcher Martín Maldonado has no new ways to describe Verlander’s feats.
“He did Verlander things. Same guy. It’s fun to be behind him, that’s what I can say,” said Maldonado, who drove in half of the Astros’ runs in addition to catching a shutout. “I think that guy was born locked in.”
Verlander acknowledged that in the two years he was nursing his elbow back to health, majorleague hitters made adjustments. There are fewer swing-and-misses at high fastballs, for example, especially with two strikes.
He has adjusted back by concentrating less on strikeouts and more on preserving his pitches, which enables him to go deep into
games. Thursday’s outing gave Verlander five strikeouts in backto-back starts; he pitched a season-high eight innings with six strikeouts on June 29 at the Mets.
A Cleveland lineup known to hit for contact fouled off 25 pitches and put 15 balls in play against him, but batted just .100 with two hits.
“I'm not pitching to strikeouts,” Verlander said. “I'm pitching to get weak contact, get outs, attack the zone, put pressure on hitters. And if the strikeouts happen, they happen. So when a team like this that doesn't swing and miss very much, when you face them, it can make it more difficult if some of that soft contact lands. … And you just hope, like tonight, some guys behind me made some great plays.”
Verlander has 127 strikeouts this season, almost one per inning pitched, and his strikeout rate per nine innings (8.79) is the best among Houston’s starting pitchers.
“The best pitchers that I faced in my time weren't necessarily strikeout pitchers,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “They're throwing the ball where they want to throw it, they're changing speeds. And plus, to be a strikeout pitcher, you got to throw a lot of strikes. You know, you got foul balls, you got at least three strikes per person. He was very effective. So I'm not worried about his strikeouts.”
Besides innings, Verlander was conscious of one other number in Cleveland: His career ERA at Progressive Field, which was 5.34 in 29 games before Thursday. The shutout performance lowered his ERA there to 5.17.
“I got some demons here to exorcise and apparently I'm not done exorcising them, because I'm still above a five,” he said, half joking. “It feels good to pitch well here, particularly. These guys tormented me for a while. It always seemed like, you know, I'd have a good game going and just something happened and it would all go sideways. … It was like ‘OK, we got a one, two-run lead. Don't be complacent. Stay focused, make pitches, don't take anything for granted.’ Just seen it happen too many times here for me. So if anything, it maybe just kept me a little more focused.”