Quick hits: Astros’ Verlander has been putting together a season for the ages

What Justin Verlander has accomplished at the age of 36 is nothing short of remarkable. On Sunday, Verlander became the sixth pitcher in major-league history to toss at least three no-hitters, joining Nolan Ryan, Sandy Koufax, Bob Feller, Larry Corcoran and Cy Young.

Sunday’s outing was a masterpiece, but it’s his overall performance this season that has been most impressive. Verlander currently leads all qualified pitchers with a 0.772 WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched). The only pitcher in MLB history with a lower WHIP while tossing at least 190 innings was Pedro Martinez in 2000 (0.737).

The velocity continues to defy aging, with Verlander topping out at 97 m.p.h. against the Blue Jays. He entered Monday leading the majors in innings (193), strikeouts (257) and opponents’ batting average (.166). Verlander has finished in the top three in voting for the AL Cy Young Award five times in his career. A sixth seems virtually guaranteed and the only competition for the top spot might come from teammate Gerrit Cole.

Verlander was supposed to be washed up back in 2014 when he posted a 4.54 ERA in 32 starts. That proved to be nothing more than a minor blip in an otherwise illustrious career and he will easily go down as one of the best pitchers from this current generation. Sunday’s no-hitter just drove home that point even further.

á The race for October: A season that began with far too few teams hoping to contend is limping to the finish line in similar fashion. Entering play on Monday, the NL Central was the only division with a race that was within five games.

In the AL, second-place Tampa Bay and Oakland trailed their respective division leaders by 10 games. The NL West was even worse with the Diamondbacks sitting 18 games back. The AL Central and NL East still have the potential to tighten up down the stretch, but this isn’t the September baseball most have come to love.

Even the wild-card races aren’t as compelling as normal. The AL wild card is down to three teams, with Boston also potentially on the periphery facing a five-game deficit. The NL is better with six teams in the mix for two spots, with the largest deficit being the Mets at four games back. For baseball’s sake, at least, a couple of these races need to spill over into the final week to build a bit of buzz.