The Houston Astros are closing out an impressive 2022 season, highlighted by the dominant performance of ace pitcher Justin Verlander, who has made a strong case to bring home the coveted Cy Young award this season.
Verlander wrapped up his season with 10 strikeouts over 5 innings, the cherry on top of an impressive season coming off of Tommy John surgery.
“The last few starts, it was like the Secretariat movie, when he’s coming around the last turn” Verlander said, according to MLB.com’ Brian McTaggart. “He’s having a great race and the trainer is like, ‘Just don’t fall off!’ That’s how I felt. I had to keep reminding myself, ‘Just finish strong. Let’s not try to limp home for any particular reason, because I want to finish with whatever flashy numbers there are.’ Kind of go back out there and pitch to what got you here, which is go out there and win baseball games, keep your guys in the game and don’t try to do too much.”
Verlander leads the league with 18 wins, and has a 1.75 ERA, a 0.829 WHIP, 185 strikeouts and has allowed just 6.0 hits per nine innings.
