Houston Astros: Justin Verlander ready to notch record in final homestand

Houston Astros ace Justin Verlander is ready to notch a record as the team takes on the Los Angeles Angels in their final homestand. What’s going on?

The Houston Astros will take on the final game of the season at Minute Maid Park as they look to wrap this series with a win over the Los Angeles Angels. Up until last night, the team had won six straight and had won 11 out of their last 14 games.

Last night’s 8-4 loss was a tough one as they couldn’t overcome the firepower the Angels had over Wade Miley. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a record comeback like they had against the Seattle Mariners a few weeks back and the team continued to trail the whole game.

The Houston Astros are legitimately concerned about Miley’s readiness for the playoffs as a 4th starter. The rotation of Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole and Zack Greinke are set but Miley is that pitcher that’s going to help them stretch the rest of the other guys as they go through the nuance of a postseason series.

Miley will hopefully be able to figure this out before next week or they may have to turn to another pitcher to get the job done. Had Aaron Sanchez not been hurt, resulting in him pitching poorly before being put on the shelf, he would’ve been a viable option.

But that’s not the case and this will have to be resolved soon.

Nonetheless, enough doom and gloom, let’s talk about something more uplifting like the greatness of Verlander! He’ll be available to close out the Houston Astros‘ season the same way he started it, on the bump.

He’ll be tasked with helping the Houston Astros clinch the AL West title today and then try to work

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toward earning home-field advantage for the postseason. The latter race is still too close to call between them and the New York Yankees and likely won’t be decided until later this week.

But Verlander also is trying to notch a record that he’s done only once in his career — winning 20+ games in a season. He currently has 19 of those right now and he’ll be ready to get No.20 this afternoon.

Verlander won 24 games back in 2011, arguably the best season of his career and he could get close to that mark today at age 36.

It’s quite remarkable and I can’t even fathom how he’s getting better as he racks up his service time in MLB.

Although I think Cole should win the AL Cy Young award, Verlander has put together a mind-boggling campaign to likely achieve such a prestigious honor for the second time in his career.

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I just wish Verlander nothing but the best as he spearheads the team’s quest to go out and take the World Series crown back from the Boston Red Sox this season.

Let’s go Houston Astros!

Verlander has posted a 19-6 record, a 2.50 ERA while tossing 283 strikeouts to 59 earned runs along with a 0.788 WHIP (an MLB record) and 3.29 FIP through 212.0 innings pitched in 32 starts in 2019.

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