Verlander unlucky in 1st Astros loss
LOS ANGELES — He had it all: The lead. The stuff. The opportunity to elevate his already outstanding career to the next level. What Justin Verlander did not have Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium was good fortune. Or, he reiterated, the good baseballs. Hence the 12th-year veteran failed to cash in on his first chance to get himself a World Series ring. Hence Verlander’s Astros will take on the Dodgers in a winner-takes-all Game 7 on Wednesday night in the wake of Houston’s 3-1 defeat. “I’m not going to go home tonight and be like, ‘Man, I pitched horribly,’ ” said Verlander, who allowed two runs, three hits and no walks in six innings, striking out nine. “I feel like I pitched pretty well, and I feel like the National League game dictated that I came out a little quicker than I probably would have. And we’ll see what happens.” Astros manager A.J. Hinch lifted Verlander for pinch-hitter Evan Gattis in the top of the seventh inning because Verlander gave back his slim, 1-0 advantage in the bottom of the sixth. The fateful, game-winning sequence for the Dodgers will be remembered not for any display of power, but rather for some grinding and lucky landing. Verlander had allowed just one hit through five innings, retiring 15-of-16 Dodgers batters, when he fell behind catcher Austin Barnes, 2-and-0, and served up a leadoff single, a line drive to left field.
“I think when I sit down and really reflect on this game, the one thing I’ll be upset about maybe is falling behind Barnes,” Verlander said. “He still didn’t hit the ball well.”
Then came arguably the biggest moment. With pitcher Tony Watson due up, veteran Chase Utley pinch hit. He had zero hits in 14 previous postseason at-bats.
Verlander tossed a few baseballs into the dugout and asked for new ones.
“They were slippery,” he said, allud- ing to the Sports Illustrated story [to which Verlander contributed] about these World Series balls being slicker. “You grab them, I feel like I’m going to throw it to the backstop. I wouldn’t say any of the balls are great, but some are better than others.”
With that in mind, and with Utley up, “I was just not going to get beat on a slider that hung in the middle,” Verlander said. “So I really tried to bury it down and in. It hit him.”
It did, putting Dodgers on first and second with no out. Up came Chris Taylor, who fisted a 1-and-2, 97-mph fastball into the right-field corner for a bloop double, scoring Barnes with the tying run.
“You can’t really protect against that,” Verlander said. “I beat him to the spot. He hit it off the label. I went back and looked at it. I’d take my chances on that 10 out of 10 times. But unfortunately tonight, it found the line.”
Corey Seager followed with a sacrifice fly to the right-field wall, scoring Utley with the lead run, and Verlander departed the next half-inning. His teammates scored no more, saddling Verlander with his first loss since he joined the Astros on Aug. 31.
So it’s onto Game 7, and Verlander will be an observer. Or will he?
“Right now, yeah, I feel great,” he said. “But I’ve got to sleep on it, see how I feel [Wednesday].”