Verlander falls 1 pitch short of magical
Verlander’s bid for a no-hitter ends with his lone mistake — a homer by Abreu in the 7th
Justin Verlander fell one pitch short of magical Tuesday night at Minute Maid Park, so he settled for splendiferous. That was more than sufficient. The Astros ace took a no-hitter into the seventh inning before allowing a home run by his nemesis, Chicago White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu. Verlander coasted through eight innings with 12 strikeouts and a walk in a 5-1 victory before exiting to the applause of 31,392 that came to Minute Maid Park for T-shirts and dollar hot dogs and almost got to see a slice of history.
Verlander, seeking his third career nohitter, was dominant from the get-go, inducing 28 swings and misses — his highest number recorded in that category since pitch tracking began in 2008, according to Major League Baseball — on 101 pitches and getting 11 swinging strikeout victims with a full array of his pitches on display.
With his childhood hero, Nolan Ryan, watching from the broadcast booth, Verlander knew he was on the verge of joining the select group of pitchers with three no-hitters before Abreu took him deep.
“I sat here (Monday) and talked with (Ryan) for 15 minutes, and I took a moment in the fifth or sixth to see if he was sitting behind home plate,” Verlander said. “It would have been cool for him to be here if I was able to get it, but I screwed it up.”
Verlander retired 19 of the first 20 batters he faced, allowing a one-out walk to designated hitter Yonder Alfonso in the second, before Abreu unloaded a 416foot blast to the batter’s eye for his sixth homer in 44 career at-bats against Verlander.
“It was a cat-and-mouse game,” Verlander said. “(Abreu) and I have had a lot of battles together, and I know his strength and he knows mine.
“I didn’t think he would swing (on the first pitch of the at-bat). I was trying to get ahead of him with a well-located fastball that leaked out over the plate just enough and was just far enough down, and he put a great swing on it.”
That being said, Verlander allowed that he was on his game Tuesday night. He threw 74 pitches for strikes and had an astonishing 15 strikes, all but one of them swinging, on 33 sliders.
“I knew the slider was really good early on and was able to locate it well,” he said. “When you’re attacking the zone, guys have got to swing. That’s the game. I was around the plate enough and even on 0-2 and 1-2 counts, I sometimes attack the zone just to keep guys on the defensive. That warrants guys to swing a little more.”
The Astros’ batting order backed up Verlander with a fourrun outburst in the fifth to break open what early on was a pitchers’ duel between Verlander and White Sox starter Dylan Covey (0-3).
Covey held the Astros in check through three innings before allowing Yuli Gurriel’s oppositefield home run to right in the fourth and coming undone in the fifth, when they put up four runs before recording their first out in a 44-minute half-inning.
Tony Kemp and Jake Marisnick worked nine- and seven-pitch walks, respectively, off Covey, and the righthander fell behind 2-0 to Josh Reddick before being lifted for lefthander Aaron Bummer, who had not allowed an earned run this season.
That ended quickly. Reddick worked the count to 3-2 before drawing a walk to load the bases, and Kemp scored when Bummer unleashed a wild pitch with Alex Bregman at the plate. Bregman walked to load the bases once more, and Michael Brantley sliced an opposite-field double to the base of the left-field scoreboard to score Marisnick and Reddick.
Carlos Correa followed with a single to score Bregman before Gurriel lined out and Diaz grounded into a double play to end the inning.
“The game was in the balance in the fifth,” said manager A.J. Hinch. “They had their best guys in there, and we put up good atbats. … The ‘hand the baton to the next guy’ mentality was in full force.”
Verlander, meanwhile, handcuffed the White Sox lineup through eight innings.
Before Abreu’s blast, the closest Chicago came to a hit through five innings was Tim Anderson’s tailing line drive to right that Josh Reddick tracked down for the third out in the second.
Verlander coaxed two swinging strikeouts in the first inning, the second against Abreu. Eloy Jimenez went down swinging in the second, and the righthander struck out the side in the third — Charlie Tilson on a curveball, Yolmer Sanchez on a fastball and Leury Garcia on a slider.
Veraldner was dominant as well in the fourth, getting Yoan Moncada on a curveball and Wellington Castillo on a slider surrounding another successful showdown against Abreu, who made the second out on a foul pop to Gurriel.
Jimenez was strikeout victim No. 9, swinging at a strike-three slider to lead off the fifth, before Alonso and Anderson went down on groundouts.
Verlander was undeterred by the fifth-inning delay, setting down the White Sox in order in the sixth with yet another swinging strikeout by Sanchez on a slider. Yoan Moncada struck out swinging before Abreu’s home run, and Jimenez was the only Chicago batter to take a called third strike to end the inning.
Hector Rondon pitched the ninth, allowing a leadoff walk to Sanchez and retiring Abreu on a grounder to end the game that will be remembered for Verlander’s near miss but also his night of excellence.
“Didn’t he have a good night?” Hinch said. “Wow. He was really in control of the game.”