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Houston Astros starting pitcher Justin Verlander bounced back from a nightmarish outing with a phenomenal showing against the Detroit Tigers in a 9-3 win on Sunday, and Tigers first baseman Spencer Torkelson was wowed by just how dominant Verlander was against Detroit, where he began his big-league career nearly two decades ago (maybe he’ll return to the Motor City one day).
“He’s on his way to Cooperstown for a reason,” Torkelson said, via Dawn Klemish of MLB.com. “I thought we had a good plan heading into it, capitalize on mistakes, then realized early on there wasn’t going to be very many mistakes to capitalize on.”
Verlander is certainly one of the best ever, and Torkelson found that out the hard way. The 24-year-old struck out a couple of times against Verlander and went 1-for-4 with a two-run home run on the day. The homer did not come against Verlander.
Verlander ended up throwing seven shutout innings, allowing just two hits and two walks while fanning eight hitters. He threw just 95 pitches, with 61 of them being strikes. He took a no-hitter into the fifth inning of the affair. That came after Verlander was shelled for seven runs while allowing three long balls in a 10-3 loss to the New York Yankees last week. The 41-year-old recently returned from a shoulder injury that sidelined him in the early stages of the 2024 campaign. He made his season debut on April 19 and has gone 2-1 with a 3.38 ERA across five starts. He has surrendered hits while registering 23 punchouts. Meanwhile, 2024 has been a struggle for Torkelson. The slugger has slashed just .224/.294/.333 with one home run and 14 RBI through 38 games. His saving grace has been that he leads the league with 13 doubles. This comes after a breakout 2023 campaign in which he smashed 31 dingers while driving in 94 runs.Justin Verlander could be on the move
We have become accustomed to seeing the Astros on top. After all, they have made it to the ALCS seven years in a row, making four trips to the World Series and collecting a couple of championships throughout that span. However, this year has certainly been Houston’s year. The Astros were just 15-25 heading into Monday night’s action, good for fourth place in the AL West. Luckily for Houston, its division has been terrible, as the club still sits just 6.5 games behind the Seattle Mariners for first place in the AL West. But it seems pretty obvious that the Astros are not legitimate contenders and that their window may be closing. At least for this season. As a result, Verlander’s name has surfaced in trade rumors, although his no-trade clause may make it difficult for Houston to complete a deal. Rumor has it that Verlander would waive his no-trade clause if the Baltimore Orioles or Los Angeles Dodgers came knocking, per Jon Heyman of The New York Post. Verlander is currently in his second stint with the Astros. He was initially acquired by Houston from the Tigers ahead of the 2017 MLB trade deadline and proceeded to spend the next five-and-a-half seasons there. He then signed with the New York Mets in free agency in December 2022, but was dealt back to the Astros last August. Could this be the end of the road for Verlander in Houston? The Astros still have plenty of time to turn things around, but if they continue to struggle, they may have to say goodbye to Verlander once again. Verlander has won three AL Cy Young awards in his career, with two of them coming in Houston. He most recently took home the honor in 2022 after going 18-4 with a 1.75 ERA.
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