This article is compiled from How Justin Verlander fits into Astros’ playoff plans
Pavin Smith hit a deep fly ball to right field in the second inning at Houston’s Plum Blossom Park on Sunday night, September 8. Pitcher Justin Verlander tried to see the ball heading out of bounds for a clearer view. As the ball approached the out-of-bounds post, Verlander slumped to his right, perhaps praying that the ball would fly out of bounds.
But unfortunately, the ball hit the foul mark and Smith hit a three-RBI home run. Verlander’s face fell, and he seemed to be struck inside. Verlander’s performance in the first three games after returning from injury is very good, and he needs to perform well in this game. But just entering the second game, Verlander fell into a big crisis again.
Verlander never recovered in the game, and three innings later Smith hit another home run – this time a grand slam, in one of the Hall of Fame-to-be’s worst starts. .
After pitching just three innings against the Diamondbacks, Verlander exited the game trailing 8-0. He also knew that the Astros’ bullpen was tired by the end of the season and told manager Joe Espada that he could pitch one or two more innings, but Espada declined and replaced him. In Verlander’s 523 starts, the most runs allowed in a game was nine, which came in early 2017.
Head coach Espada said after the game: “He is still adjusting. I will not distrust Verlander’s past qualifications, and I believe he can make appropriate adjustments and return to his previous form. We need to keep trying new methods.”
“Physically I feel pretty good, but obviously the results are…” Verlander said.
He paused, thinking about a suitable adjective: “It sucks.”
Verlander has experienced the frustration of pitching many times, and when he can’t successfully solve hitters, he has to make adjustments – physical condition, pitching action, distribution, etc. However, with only three weeks left in the regular season and Verlander, the oldest active player in the major leagues (41 years, 5 months and 2 days) trying to fill in the Astros’ playoff rotation, the situation is Something he had never faced before.
Speaking of the Astros’ starting rotation, Framber Valdez found his straight ball; Hunter Brown used Verlander as a template to modify the pitching pattern and mechanism and dominated the pitching field; after transferring to the Astros from the Blue Jays, Kikuchi Yusei started Wins every game he starts; Ronel Blanco is the Astros’ most consistent pitcher, with a 2.99 ERA in 27 games.
By comparison, Verlander returned to the mound after months of injury and allowed 19 runs in 17 2/3 innings since his return. In an interview on September 7, he mentioned that he felt like he was going through spring training, slowly building and improving his pitching, but by September the hitters he faced were all firing on all cylinders. Verlander tried to find his rhythm, telling the head coach and staff that he could help the Astros return to glory, make the playoffs and win their third championship in the past eight seasons.
In an interview on September 7, Verlander also mentioned that he has found areas for improvement in his recent bullpen practice, which can help him correct his body mechanism. While on the disabled list, he had to become more aware of how his body worked and how his neck affected his body posture.
“Is it a pitching posture?”
Verlander responded: “No, it’s the posture of the body in everyday life.”
Verlander had been a stomach sleeper his whole life, but he realized sleeping on his stomach was bad for his posture, so he tried sleeping on his side or back instead. At the same time, he also pays attention to his sitting posture and posture when looking at his mobile phone. When playing cards with his teammates, he would sometimes hunch his back. While trying to adjust, he would also tell his teammates who had good posture and who had bad posture.
Based on these little bits of information, Verlander gradually made adjustments to his strategy in his last game against the Diamondbacks line, which had the most points of any team. He was happy to play against the Diamondbacks, explaining: “In spring training you hope to face a line with a lot of major league hitters, which will help you improve a lot.”
But in that first start, he lacked the type of change ball that could grab strikes: when he needed a change ball to grab a strike, he often couldn’t control the change ball into the strike zone. He only got 16 strikes out of 34 non-fast pitches in the game.
Therefore, although Verlander and head coach Espada both felt that the quality of his fastball in this game was better than in the previous three games, with a sharper trajectory and a ball speed of about 95 mph, but he lacked a changeup or changeup to protect the straight ball. The Diamondbacks did not miss this opportunity. Smith’s home run had an initial velocity of 106.3 mph, and Joc Pederson also hit a hit with an initial velocity of 108.3 mph. The initial velocity of the ball exceeded 100 times.
According to data from sports statistics company Elias Sports Bureau, Smith’s second home run to left field was Verlander’s first grand slam since August 2010 (14 years and 150 days ago). It is also the record for the second-longest distance between Grand Slam shots in history, held by John Franco (15 years and 58 days). In addition, there is Hall of Famer Jim Palmer, who has not knocked out a single slam in his career.
