Sometimes in sports, we see something truly extraordinary, and veteran Houston Astros pitcher Justin Verlander threw an awesome six hitless innings in the Astros v Twins game recently, with 62 strikes coming from his spell of 91 pitches.
You would have got decent odds with Kansas sports betting companies on that happening, but Justin Verlander shutting out the opposition is not something that will have surprised the bookmakers too much. He’s still showing his class in what could be the twilight of his career.
He’s 39 years old now and managed to total 10 strikeouts, significantly lowering his ERA to 1.87, becoming the best in the whole league at the time. During the spell, the only runner to manage to get on base was Nick Gordon, who managed to do so on a third-strike wild pitch.
Dusty Baker asked Verlander if he wanted to keep going after such a long run of no-hits. “After six innings at 91 pitches, you know it’s not going to be one of those nights,” Verlander said. “Maybe 15 years ago, 10 years ago when I loved throwing 130-something. But not now and specifically not after Tommy John in my first season back.”
When Verlander did exit, the Minnesota shortstop Carlos Correa was the man to stop the no-hits with a single in the seventh inning.
This was one of a number of different subplots to the story as the Astros took on the Minnesota Twins. Correa was playing with the Astros as recently as November last year, when he entered a free agency agreement, eventually signing a huge contract worth over $35m per year to play for the Twins.
Verlander was the headline act as he showed his incredible quality – and not for the first time this season. Back in May, when they played the Twins – he managed to stop their offense through eight innings, as well as taking a no-hit in the seventh against the Oakland Athletics back in June.
He’s a nine-time All-Star pick and his record is still impressive this season. This took the record to 16-3 with 148 strikeouts – from his 149 innings.
Verlander’s luck was not as good come Sunday, August 28, as his performance was cut short when he experienced a calf problem. He pitched just three innings, with sixty pitches in total, and it was later announced that he’d had some pain and discomfort in his calf – these ailments can happen when you reach his sort of age.
In his innings, he allowed three hits and a walk, and left with the game scoreless as he was feeling his calf.
“He’s going in for some imaging,” Dusty Baker said in an interview. “He felt that – when he was covering first base – that it was his calf. And that is the best of bad news. We were really glad that it wasn’t anything to do with his arm or elbow or anything like that.”
Dusty Baker’s looking at the upsides there, as an elbow injury would cause some big issues in the future. Verlander has hit form again after struggling at times this year.
Verlander still a mile off the record
Okay, we’re not judging him by this record, of course, but it is always interesting to look at some of the records in the past.
Over 100 years ago, Cy Young, a pitcher you may have heard of, managed to go two weeks and 24 consecutive innings without giving up a base. That’s a record that nobody has come anywhere close to recently, and we don’t expect anyone to in the near future.
Young’s 24 innings went from a 2-0 loss to Philadelphia in 1904, and then came on for seven hitless innings five days later. Another five days passed and he faced Philadelphia again, pitching a perfect game. By May 11, he finally succumbed to Sam Crawford of Detroit, who managed to snap the streak after 24.
There’s no way we can judge Verlander by these sorts of records, and we don’t expect him to get to that sort of level, but you never know when one of these streaks can crop up. Verlander certainly has a lot of talent, even as he approaches what should be the end of his glittering career in the MLB.
Summary
For Justin Verlander to still be throwing six hitless innings at this point in his career is very impressive. We’ll all be hoping his injury isn’t too significant, as he could really do without having to worry too much about any niggling injuries. Okay, it’s not his arm, but even leg and joint injuries can make a big difference at this point. He needs to be looked after if he is to continue these incredibly high standards for the Astros.
