CLEVELAND — His jersey dampened by a drizzle and his socks high for the first time in seven seasons, Justin Verlander came set. One strike separated him from a quality start — standard operating procedure in his past but so difficult to author in the present.
Verlander had not thrown a pitch in the sixth inning since May 29. One week later, a neck injury derailed his season and shifted the structure of a pitching staff already starved for depth. A trio of young arms ascended to aid it. So did a hired hand the Houston Astros have transformed into a titan.
Verlander’s place among them is tenuous. He’s navigated several injuries across a 19-year career, but finding his form following this one has been more difficult than any of them. A shrinking calendar has magnified his misery and will force this franchise into difficult decisions.
Three days before the first one, Verlander drew a deep breath. The four-seam fastball he released rose through Bo Naylor’s strike zone and had the hop so many before it have shown. Naylor waved wildly over it, concluding the final start of Verlander’s regular season and, perhaps, his Astros career.
Justin Verlander of the @Astros picks up career win No. 262, most among active pitchers. pic.twitter.com/l45qPhwtTK
— MLB (@MLB) September 29, 2024
If this is how an era ends, what better way than with a final elevated fastball for the franchise that first encouraged him to throw it?
“You never know what’s going to happen. I’ve got some work to do this offseason personally and that’s going to happen after whatever happens in the playoffs,” Verlander said. “That’s kind of where my focus is at. If I end up back here, great. I love Houston. Love the people, love my teammates. I’ve had an incredible run. If not, tip your cap, say thank you for an incredible journey.”
Verlander scattered seven hits across six innings of three-run ball during a 4-3 win against the Cleveland Guardians. Teammates presented him with two wrestling belts afterward, a white one to recognize him as the pitcher of the game and a blue one that crowns the club’s player of the game.
Verlander wore the white belt around his waist while conducting a lighthearted postgame interview. He told stories of superstitious raising and lowering of his pants in response to some in-season struggles. He first did it during a Mother’s Day start against the Texas Rangers in 2016. He posted a 2.42 ERA across the next 193 innings, but as he reminded a small group of reporters on Saturday, still failed to appear on two American League Cy Young Award ballots.
Relief seemed palpable, even with so much still unsettled. Permutations exist where the Astros could carry him on a Wild Card Series roster, but pitching him at all in the series seems — at best — a longshot.
That Verlander even started on Saturday signaled the organization’s thinking. His scheduled turn in the rotation should have been on Friday, but the Astros opted to start Ronel Blanco, whom they hope can contribute as a middle reliever during the Wild Card Series. Blanco boasts a 2.80 ERA in his first season as a full-time starter.
Verlander lowered his to 5.48 on Saturday. In his past nine starts, it is 8.10. Verlander will not be on full rest until Thursday, when Game 3 of a Wild Card Series would be played. Handing a future Hall of Famer the baseball in an elimination game is the dream of any franchise. Instead, this one has two far better options: Hunter Brown or Yusei Kikuchi.
Verlander has made one relief appearance across his 19-year major-league career. Asking him to do it on the sport’s biggest stage seems ludicrous.
“I think JV is pretty smart and kind of understands the situation that he’s in,” manager Joe Espada said before the game. “We haven’t had any conversations about using JV any other way than what he’s typically been. He’s been a starter his whole career and a really good one.”
Saturday showed it in spurts. Espada said he saw a pitcher with “some intention there to show he could still deliver.” Verlander did, even if his line does not show the dominance to which we’ve become accustomed.
“I know I haven’t been nearly as good as I need to be,” Verlander said. “I also know there’s been some bad luck mixed in there, but I’m not going to let that be a crutch and say ‘Aw, it’s just that.’ It’s not. I haven’t been as sharp as I need to be. I feel like I’ve been inching in the right direction.”
Verlander retired nine of the final 11 Guardians he saw. The 36 four-seam fastballs he threw comprised a season-low 38 percent of his arsenal. Verlander used his changeup more than any of his previous 16 starts and threw his slider more to the back foot, an acknowledgment that he may have to adjust in hopes of harnessing the consistency that has eluded him.
“When you come back it’s like ‘OK, you want to give yourself an opportunity to get back to being the pitcher that you normally are. ‘I wasn’t quite able to find that yet,” Verlander said.
“I come into tonight and it’s like, ‘All right, this is a team I can throw some changeups, start throwing some back-door sliders and I’m doing some different stuff.’ What the hell? Why not? I feel like I threw those pitches pretty well, too.”
Still, some of what has plagued Verlander across the past two months persisted on Saturday. Cleveland took 57 swings against him and whiffed 10 times. The Guardians spoiled 27 pitches foul, prolonged plate appearances and pushed Verlander’s pitch count to an unsustainable point. He required 62 pitches to procure his first nine outs, but needed just 33 to navigate his final nine.
“Hitter reactions are something I pay a lot of attention to and even though there were more hits than I would’ve liked today, the reactions weren’t great,” Verlander said.
Seeing them from a playoff-bound lineup is a step forward, but it may not be enough to meaningfully impact Houston’s decision-making. On two separate occasions, Verlander politely declined to speculate his playoff status while deferring to Espada’s decision-making. Candid comments after his last start against the Los Angeles Angels sounded like a man who’d come to terms with whatever looms.
“To be frank, I wish this wasn’t the end of the season,” Verlander said. “I don’t know, again, what’s going to happen in the playoffs. But with somebody like myself who works as hard as I possibly can to figure it out, usually there’s something I can get to click, but this injury has been a little bit different.
“There’s been nothing to make it click. It’s been inching in the right direction and this would be nice to build off of.”
(Photo: Nick Cammett / Getty Images)
