Verlander launches Astros career with victory
Justin Verlander wearily looked at the clubhouse clock Tuesday night. It was nearly
11 p.m. Most of his teammates had departed for the team bus, and he had yet to shower.
Suddenly, all of that adrenaline that fueled him during the day was being overtaken by fatigue.
Verlander, 35, sat down in front of his locker and began to unwind, reflecting not only on his first day on the job with his new team, the Houston Astros, but also the whirlwind of the last five days of his life.
Here he was, having dinner with his fiancée, model Kate Upton, in the upscale suburb of Detroit last Thursday, and 120 hours later, he was surrounded by new teammates, celebrating his first victory as an Astros pitcher, and honored with the heavy championship belt as the pitcher of the game.
“Can I talk about this?” Verlander yelled over to outfielder Jake Marisnick. “Is it OK to talk about this thing with the media, at all?’’
Marisnick, almost sheepishly, quickly gave his approval, and Verlander was subtly informed he’s got the freedom to talk about anything he wishes.
This is as much Verlander’s team now as anyone else in the clubhouse, given the responsibility to take this franchise where it has never gone.
So even though this was one night, and hardly a critical game with the Astros owning a 14-game American League West lead with
24 games remaining, it meant everything to Verlander.
You see, he’s the new guy from the Detroit Tigers. The guy who’s the Astros’ finest pitching acquisition since Roger Clemens, expected to dominate through three rounds of the postseason, when they are the last ones standing.
He wasn’t about to let anyone down now, not in his first start against the Seattle Mariners. Only when the game ended, with Verlander pitching six innings (six hits, one run, one walk, seven strikeouts), former Tigers team-
mate Cameron Maybin hitting the go-ahead homer and closer Ken Giles nailing down the 3-1 victory, did Verlander permit himself to exhale.
“It was really important for me to make a good first impression,” Verlander told USA TODAY Sports. “There were so many different emotions that I’m not used to. There was a different nervous level.
“The closest thing I can liken it to is opening day, but it’s still different. You have the weight of this team. The weight of the city. And a lot of people looking at you to have success.
“You want to set a tone for what you’re about. Hopefully, I did that.”
Oh, did he ever.
“I would tell you the sixth inning was worth the price of admission,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “That was as impressive a finish of an outing as we could ask for.”
Indeed, particularly considering that Hinch momentarily stopped breathing, general manager Jeff Luhnow felt faint and Verlander’s mind went numb when Robinson Cano led off the sixth with a line drive off Verlander’s right wrist. It caromed off his chest and bounced away.
“Hell, yeah, I was worried,”
Hinch said. “I didn’t know where it hit him at first, but it got him in the wrist. He didn’t flinch. He was more (upset) than anything. There was no way he wanted to come out of the game.”
The only thing that would knock him out of this game, Verlander later confided, would be a broken wrist. And, for a frightening moment there, he wasn’t sure if he had broken a bone.
“When I got hit, it was like, ‘Where’s the ball?’ ” Verlander said. “A typical response. And once I realized it was landing toward the third-base line, and I had no chance to get him out, that’s when I said, ‘OK, is it broke? Is it broke?’
“You have that second or so of numbness. So when it’s broke, you know when it is. That pain is different than being-hit-by-a-ball pain. I felt it, but it wasn’t that kind of numbness that comes with a broken bone.”
Verlander, finding himself surrounded by virtually the entire organization, picked up the ball, threw a warm-up pitch and shooed everyone off the mound.
“That thing hit him square on the wrist,” Astros catcher Brian McCann said. “But he’s just old school. He was like, ‘Let’s go.’ It was pretty awesome.”
Verlander stayed in, induced a
double-play grounder and ended his night with a fastball clocked at 99 mph, his 103rd pitch.
“I was hoping to hit 100,” Verlander said.
“I can take a deep breath now,” he added. “I think my home opener will be pretty exciting, but it’s nice to get this one under my belt.”
His debut capped a two-month saga in which Verlander’s top trade choices — the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs — didn’t show strong interest. Meanwhile, the Astros were excoriated within their own clubhouse for failing to make a move at the July 31 nonwaiver deadline.
With full no-trade rights, the choice was ultimately Verlander’s.
“We talked,” Astros ace Dallas Keuchel said, “and I reassured him that this would be a great place for him. I told him, ‘Hey, you won’t regret coming here. I know your legacy is pretty much cemented in Detroit,’ but I said, ‘We want to top off your legacy by winning a World Series.’ ”
The Astros, with a magic number of 11, know they’re going to win the AL West and are confident they’ll wind up with homefield advantage. And whomever they play in the AL Champion- ship Series or meet in the World Series, they’ve got the confidence now that they can beat anybody.
One man has made that kind of difference.
“We’re all pretty excited,” Astros All- Star shortstop Carlos Correa said. “It’s a great time to be an Astro. We got Justin Verlander. We got Dallas Keuchel. We got everybody we need.
“I don’t know if we’d feel this confident if we hadn’t traded for him, but this increases our chances, that’s for sure.”
Verlander, with AL MVP and Cy Young awards in his trophy case, says he’s still haunted by the fact he doesn’t have that ring. There were so many near-misses during his 13-year career with the Tigers. There was the 2006 World Series loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. The 2012 World Series sweep by the San Francisco Giants. And that gut-wrenching David Ortiz grand slam for the Boston Red Sox in the 2013 American League Championship Series.
“I remember,” Verlander softly said. “How can I not?’’
The pain never quite subsided, with Verlander always wondering whether he’d ever get another opportunity.
Now, when he had lost hope of being in the postseason, he found himself wearing a strange uniform Tuesday trying to make sense of this whirlwind week.
“It’s still hard to believe, but it’s sunk in now,” Verlander said, late in the evening. “I’m here. The guys have made me so comfortable. They made feel like I belong.
“Believe me, I can get used to this.”
“It’s still hard to believe, but it’s sunk in now. I’m here. The guys have made me so comfortable. They made feel like I belong. Believe me, I can get used to this.” Justin Verlander on joining the Astros