Veteran’s turn to start is Justin time
‘This is why I’m here,’ summarizes ace of pitching in do-or-die games
With their backs against the wall, the Astros have called on Justin Verlander to save their season.
Their ace of only seven weeks has been in this position.
“This is why I’m here,” he said Thursday.
Friday night’s Game 6 of the American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees will be Verlander’s fifth career start in a potential postseason elimination game. During the Detroit Tigers’ last best run, when they made the ALCS or World Series in three consecutive Octobers from 2011-13, do-or-die games like this were reckoned with annually.
Verlander will take the Minute Maid Park mound Friday with a 1.48 ERA in his four career elimination games. In three of those previous four, his Tigers won. The defeat came in Game 5 of the 2006 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, when a 23-yearold Verlander was charged with one earned run in six innings of a 4-2 loss.
In each of his last two elimination games, Verlander dominated. Both came against the Oakland Athletics in fifth games of a Division Series. In 2012, he struck out 11 and allowed only four hits in a complete-game shutout. The next year, he struck out 10 and held the A’s to two hits in eight scoreless frames.
Since Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow pulled off the stunning late-night Aug. 31 trade for Verlander, the 34-yearold righthander has been nearly flawless. Including the postseason, the former MVP and Cy Young Award winner has made seven starts and one relief appearance for the Astros. They won all eight games.
Hinch has confidence
“There’s immediate belief when you have a Justin Verlander going,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “When we wake up (Friday) morning, we know we have an incredible opportunity and a chance to win. Justin Verlander’s on the mound. It doesn’t matter (if it’s a) Game 1, Game 6, a game on a Tuesday in July, August, September. So, that’s a good feeling.
“He raises the bar. Guys are going to want to do a little bit extra. We’re going to have to fight that emotion … but his presence will immediately make everybody sit up straight, stand up straight, have a little bit more energy because of the presence that he brings. It’s hard to measure. It’s hard to fake. You either have it or you don’t. Verlander has it.”
The last time Verlander pitched, in Game 2 on Saturday, he delivered one of the best performances in Astros postseason history. The 101-win AL West champs came out of his Nolan Ryan-esque complete game with a commanding 2-0 series lead. They returned from a three-game stay in New York having relinquished it and then some because of the stunning disappearance of their major league-best offense.
The lack of production from their loaded lineup has been jarring. A group that batted .282 in the regular season and .333 in their four-game ALDS against the Boston Red Sox is a dismal .147 (22-for150) through five games of the ALCS. They had six or fewer hits in each of the first five games, the type of stretch an Astros team hadn’t experienced since August 2015.
Certainly, the Yankees have pitched spectacularly.
But the Astros’ bats have been in a funk unlike any other they had this season. As an 0-for-his-last-17 Josh Reddick said after Game 5, it seems like “everybody’s trying to be the one guy who can put the team on their back with one swing.”
In the ALCS, the Astros have chased more pitches outside the strike zone than usual.
“It’s hard. These guys care so much,” Hinch said. “We’ve put a lot of energy and effort into the year, and you feel like it’s right there for you to take it. And when the guy in front of you is struggling you want to be the guy. If you struggle, the guy behind you wants to help.
“The Yankees have done a good job of neutralizing a lot of our lineup. So, a lot of these guys are trying to pick up not only their own baggage but the guy in front of them, maybe the guy behind them, too.
“This is the toughest three-game stretch we’ve had. But it’s a three-game stretch that can end (Friday). We’ve got an incredible offense. We’ve got an incredible opportunity. We’re going to play in front of our home crowd. We need to win one game to get to the next game. And we feel good about it.”
Game of adjustments
If the Astros don’t hit, they will once again leave their starter little margin for error. Verlander limited the Yankees to one run and five hits in nine innings of Game 2, but these hot-hitting Yankees bats showed against Dallas Keuchel in Game 5 their ability to adjust.
When they do, Verlander will have to counter.
“I’m sure there will be some adjustments,” Verlander said. “I think as any pitcher you don’t want the team, if you’re going at the same team twice in a row, you don’t want them to see the exact same guy or the exact same game plan. So, there will probably be some adjustments on my end.
“But also, I have to trust my instincts and what my eyes tell me more than anything. I think having that experience over my career and having played this game for so long, you can go out there with all the scripted game plan that you want but sometimes what my eyes tell me, what my instincts tell me is totally different.
“So, that’s what I rely on mostly.”