Aug. 29: Verlander will undergo an MRI today to further evaluate the injury, manager Dusty Baker told reporters (link via Brian McTaggart of MLB.com).
Aug. 28: Justin Verlander threw only three innings and 60 pitches before leaving today’s start against the Orioles due to right calf discomfort. It was Verlander’s shortest outing and lowest pitch count of the season.
More will be known about the right-hander’s condition after the game, and presumably after the Astros medical staff runs a battery of tests on Verlander’s calf. At least for now, the team’s description of the injury as just “discomfort” is a good sign, as there was no immediately apparent strain.
The Astros have off-days on both Monday and Thursday this week, so unless Verlander’s issue turns out be very minor, Houston can skip his next turn in the rotation without any larger reshuffling within the pitching staff. Of course, the Astros have arguably the sport’s best and deepest pitching staff, so if Verlander had to visit the injured list, Cristian Javier could step right back into starting duty after his recent move to the bullpen. While a short-term fill-in situation is no problem, naturally losing Verlander for any significant length of time would be a severe blow to the Astros and their chances of a return trip to the World Series.
After Tommy John surgery forced Verlander to miss virtually all of the 2020 and 2021 seasons, he has returned at age-39 to post one of the very best seasons of his already legendary career. Verlander entered today’s action with a MLB-leading 1.87 ERA over 149 innings, showing no ill effects from his two-year layoff and looking like a favorite to capture the AL Cy Young Award (which would be the third CYA of Verlander’s career).
Breathe…. Just… Breathe……
Justin just use the ointment that Tatis has for his ringworm, all better now like magic!
Perhaps he already has been using the ointment. Haven’t seen this type of resurgence late in a career since Roger Clemens.
Nope, his wife gives him massages every night. She promised him that when he had surgery as long as he remained healthy. I’d stay healthy too
Hopefully, she do not massage the athlete’s foot, just maybe the athlete’s feet.
He was terrified that he had to face odor again.
When they found out about Verlander’s calf, somebody had a cow, at least that’s the beef I herd…
You do love to milk these for all you can for cheesy puns…..which I appreciate. No bull.
Every time you type “bull”, I see red
That’s OK every time the bull sees red, he pulls out his credit card & “charges it”
Bulls are color blind
These puns are udderly terrible.
Agreed, the last time I was involved in cow tipping, I was sued for ground beef…
I think Tim probably wants us to steer the conversation back to baseball.
So, is this issue muscular or bovine in nature?
If Verlander always has that gigantic of a strike zone to work with, then no wonder his numbers are so good…
Nothing like a trash can, to beat that calf into. Just stay on the Trashtros where you belong.
I don’t know who the Trashtros are, but the Astros would love to keep Verlander.
@goastros123- Sorry man, I don’t dislike you. I just dislike him. Obviously I’m a Yankees fan. Never take my hatred for the Astros personal. I’m sure you hate the Yankees.
Never understood hating another team or its players. That’s a strong emotion for a game.
@99 goastros is one of the good ones. Most of us here feel the “trashtros” jokes have run its course. I’ve been a Yankees fan for almost 40 years and have never hated any team including the RS.
Hate the Yankees. Do I? Hmm. No. I’m an adult.
I don’t hate the Yankees at all.
At least he didn’t get bad ink, see you after the Yanks lose to Seattle.
Astros pitchers are getting a bad rep. The hitters were cheating. Sure the pitchers weren’t speaking up but that would be suicide.
Perfect timing. Lol
Future New York Yankees
Where’s the downvote button?
@Al Hirschen- Let’s pray no! Your just kiddin’ around I hope?
No, he works in their front office, so he is not kidding at all.
It couldn’t have happened to a better cheater.
Verlander didn’t cheat.
care to elaborate on how verlander is a cheater, did he go out to the mound with a glord perry bb doctor kit. by no means am i a hou fan and 17 will forever leave a bad taste in my mouth, imo in 17 hou could’ve of won it it straight up they were that good but they were also desperate. no ws in there 50+ years coming out of another rebuild and seeing actual fruit from it and so close to winning one i can see where mindsets can change and you sell out to win. i’m not happy with what hou did but i can understand the why, still doesn’t explain how ver is a part of it unless he was teaching pitchers on how to doctor a bb up, as it stands right now and you have some hardcore evidence that he’s cheating too get out of here with this ver is a cheater. first of all ver has been dominate since 06 so unless he gets popped for peds his stats are legit, second even if he found out about the trash cans after he was traded there in 17 wasn’t much he can do he was the “new guy” and didn’t wanna rock the boat.
You know a team is one cohesiveness unit, correct?
since you asked:
‘In 2005, though, Percival left for the Tigers, and other Angels pitchers asked Harkins to take over. “That was the first time I was ever asked to make it,” Harkins says. A year or two later, with Percival gone, then Detroit ace Justin Verlander approached Harkins during a road trip: Harkins recalls, “He said, ‘Hey, we had Troy Percival on our team last year, and he shared the stuff that he was using and we started using it—and we called him and said, ‘We would like to get some; what do we need to do?’ He said, ‘Well, talk to Bubba.’ ” (Verlander did not respond to requests for comment.) . . .
‘“Bubba it’s Chatwood,” said a text from a phone number associated with Tyler Chatwood, then with the Cubs, in May 2018. “You think we can get some of your stuff sent over for us?” Then a follow-up: “Is that the stuff verlander is using.” Harkins said it was, and later sent a photo of a UPS receipt with tracking info. (Through a Blue Jays spokesperson, Chatwood declined to comment.)’
si.com/mlb/2021/06/14/sticky-stuff-bubba-harkins-s…
This is the “sticky stuff,” AKA Spider Tack, that a lot of pitchers were using. Remember when Tyler Glasnow got all pissed-off after his injury and blamed it on the league checking for foreign substances because he had to grip the ball harder? Remember when Cole’s spin rate dropped after the crackdown?
I don’t know if Verlander is still finding a way to use it, but the guy who made the stuff says he used it for years.
My feeling is, unless he’s busted by the umps, I should give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he figured out how to spin the ball without doctoring it.
But he plays for the Astros so he’s got to be cheating!
Justin Verlander on sign stealing (2017): “It’s not about gamesmanship anymore,” he said. “It used to be, ‘Hey, if you can get my signs, good for you.’ In the past, if a guy on second (base) was able to decipher it on a few pitches, I guess that was kind of part of the game. I think it’s a different level now. It’s not good.”
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL
Verlander is having a Cy Young year and I am sure the umpires check him for ‘stuff’ as much as any pitcher in baseball. So how is he cheating?
It wasn’t illegal then so no foul. JV probably lost some spin but he has always had better stuff than most.
Since the spitball was outlawed (although those already using it were grandfathered in with permission to continue using spit), it’s always been illegal to doctor the ball. And pitchers always found ways to do it. Speaking of his experience in one World Series, Whitey Ford joked that he put enough mud on the ball to build a dam. Joe Niekro’s adventure with an emery board on the mound was one of the funniest episodes in baseball.
youtube.com/watch?v=MzxrKO-yVV8&t=2s
Don’t forget about Gaylord Perry (I get why this comment requires moderation, but that is his name), who admitted in his autobiography that he used it.
your tears taste like sugar in my tummy
@alanz if your talking about mine then your bleeping high as a kite, because i’m shedding no tears for the astros just perspective as an outsider that saw things unfold and calling out those that feel holier that thou. when it comes to the astros let it go, just like everyone lies, in sports everyone cheats to what extent varies team by team, the only difference is the ones that are good at cheating are just never caught. also another point how much did the trash cans really help or there whole elaborate system, let’s say the astros were still doing the trash can thing in 19, it didn’t help them one bit because the lost every home game that ws, and if they could get the same system on the road (which would be damn near impossible unless you did some cia blackops stuff) why didn’t it work at home. the way i look at it from a neutral standpoint in 17 did the cans help? yes it did but not in the way everyone looks at it. yes the cans gave them a slight edge but hou pitchers still have to make there pitches and defenders still have to make plays. i’ll leave you with this cheating aside if your good enough, you can stand on the mound tell the batter everything your going to throw and the location and even with that information you may not even make contact, so after 5 years and we all got our trash can jokes in, doesn’t take away that the 17 astros were the best team in bb that year instead they got desperate and wanted to win no mater what. can really say that the trash cans really won the ws for hou or was it something more like this, hou stole a few game some that may have been deciders, yes we can, but also in those same games what miscues did the other team do that highlights the cheating. imo what the astros did only effected a handful of games and unfortunately for hou they got greedy and now there first chip will always be tainted and that’s something that franchise is going to carry with them till the end of time.
Next time, just the cliff notes will do. k
umm what are these cliff notes that you speak of. (semi-quote from master shake)
Gotta think this has something to do the child size small pants that he wears
How he got that baby cow on to the field is anybody’s guess.
He hid it in the trash can
Puns with gastrocnemius or soleus (some wiggle room) aren’t such low hanging fruit.
Uh oh not a good sign
Coca-Cola is a good sign. Classic.
I hate coke!
I have ditched coke as a product after what they did to the All-Star game in Atlanta. How dare them put woke politics over honoring hammering Hank in his home town. I also Boycotted going to MLB games last year as a result of the Altana All-star farce. You have to hold the Woke accountable. Go Woke go broke!
Hunter Brown was scratched from his start tonight with Sugar Land. Make of it what you will.
Not one inference to the player placed on waivers. I won’t mention his name either.
Another ‘golden age’ stud. Hoping it’s nothing serious and he’s back, in full health, very soon.
He’s another MLB treasure.
He is a lucky guy to be vested into his meager 25M. This injury could put him into poverty of that scant amount. I do not think he was worth what they signed him for. He really made me look wrong on that prediction; I hope He is OK!
Why do so many commenters on this site care so much about what teams pay their players.
It’s my opinion that the least smart front of people are much better equipped to decide salaries than anyone commenting here. Including me.
I’m a Dodger fan first and I trust their front office completely.
Guess he shoulda tried to finish that no-no
Should be back in six weeks. Err, next season.
There goes his career.
Musta hurt it taking out the trash