What You Need To Know: Verlander Snags Win No. 200

Image credit: USA Today Sports

The Weekend Takeaway

Pitching for the Tigers back on Aug. 11, 2011, Justin Verlander picked up career win No. 100 at Cleveland. Not only was it a big day because of the milestone, but at the time but the Tigers had gone 15 months without winning a game at Progressive Field. Verlander pitched seven innings, gave up three runs on three hits with three walks and 10 strikeouts.

At the time, Verlander claimed that winning 100 wasn’t a big deal and even claimed, “It’s never like 100 wins was a goal of mine.” Well, now he’s won 100 more, collecting win No. 200 against the A’s on Sunday afternoon in Oakland. He became the 117th pitcher in major league history to win 200 games.

Verlander’s current team, the Astros, also needed a win as it prevented the A’s from sweeping the series and overtaking them for first place in the American League West. The 9-4 victory kept Houston up one game in the division race.

As for Verlander, his outing wasn’t particularly strong, and he was aided by his offense, but he still reached an important milestone in a career that some people were declaring over a couple of seasons ago. Verlander went 5 ⅓ innings, giving up four runs and seven hits, including three home runs, he walked one and struck out six batters. He’s given up 25 home runs this season but he’s also pitching to a league-leading 1.74 ERA on the road.

And how about this for some esteemed company?

Justin Verlander is the fourth pitcher in MLB history with fewer than 125 losses and 2600+ strikeouts at the time of his 200th career win. The others are Rogers Clemens, Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez. #NeverSettle

— Stats By STATS (@StatsBySTATS) August 20, 2018

Houston has just two wins in its last nine games—both Verlander wins—while the A’s were surging by winning 13 of their last 16 games. The Astros travel to Seattle to start a series in Safeco this week. The last time the Mariners met the Astros, they swept them in four games at Minute Maid Field. And they don’t have to face Verlander. Bonus! The A’s will be welcoming the Rangers for three games.

Keep your eyes on both series because the AL West leader could change by mid-week.

Quick Hits

Clayton Kershaw also reached a milestone on Sunday: 150 wins. Kershaw was aided by his offense who exploded for 12 runs against Seattle but Kershaw lasted seven innings and gave up a run and four hits with seven strikeouts and a walk.

Kershaw won his 100th game in May 2015 and the next milestone will be 200. When it will happen is anyone’s guess but as long as Kershaw stays relatively healthy and continues to pitch at this level, it shouldn’t be too long from now.

As for other Dodgers happenings, Manny Machado was hit by a pitch thrown by Andrew Romine in a blowout. He got precautionary X-Rays but says he feels fine. Romine also made it a point to apologize to Machado after the games.

And L.A. exhales.

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The Mets and Phillies played a five-game series that started Thursday with a doubleheader that saw the Mets drop 24 on the poor Phillies in the first game. Philly rebounded nicely with a 9-6 win in the second game but overall, this wasn’t a great showing for them.

The Mets took three of five games including an 8-2 win in the Little League Classic in Williamsport, Penn. on Sunday night, which aired on ESPN.

A group of Mets pitchers including Noah Syndergaard and Jacob deGrom sat in the stands with some little leaguers.

Casual. #littleleagueclassic pic.twitter.com/wadJGQFxRz

— Little League (@LittleLeague) August 20, 2018

Imagine being those kids? How exciting. deGrom spoke to reporters about it after the game.

As for the Phillies, they are in a battle for the National League East lead. They’re tied with the Braves at 68-55 while the Nationals are seven games back in the division. The Mets are the only NL East team who have gone over .500 in the past 10 games, winning six.

More Mets news: David Wright picked up his first two hits of his rehab journey. He’s been playing for the St. Lucie Mets, and had been 0 for 14 in five games. Wright is trying, once again, to return to the Mets. He hasn’t played in a Major League game since May 2016.

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The Cubs visited Pittsburgh this weekend—another series that started on Thursday—and left with a split. Sunday was an extra-inning affair, with Adam Frazier winning it with a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 11th, on a 3-0 offering from Brandon Kintzler.

Swinging 3-0. That’s something.

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Randal Grichuk also swung on 3-0 against former teammate J.A. Happ on Sunday against the Yankees and put the Blue Jays up 1-0 in the top of the first with a solo shot to the left field bleachers.

But by the bottom of the first ended, the Yankees were up 6-1 thanks to a Greg Bird grand slam.

It was Bird’s second home run in two games.

The Yankees won the game 10-2 but may have lost Didi Gregorius to a heel injury on this play:

That won’t get Kendrys Morales into the defensive play of the weekend section of the column…

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Don’t look now but the St. Louis Cardinals are coming for the second Wild Card. They have a lot of company and if you thought the race for the two AL Wild Card spots was going to be crazy, take a look at the National League standings. St. Louis has won nine of 10, which gives them a 68-56 record. They’re tied with both the Diamondbacks and Rockies who are leading the NL West, they’re now half a game ahead of Milwaukee who are 68-57 and they’re only four games in back of the Cubs for the division lead in the Central.

Team Entropy may have itself an extremely fun time down the stretch with so many teams close in the standings. Cross your fingers that it stays this crazy in the NL. Well, if you’re not a fan of any of these teams. If you are a fan of any of these teams, take a deep breath and hang on. It may be a bumpy ride.

Defensive Plays of the Weekend

Harrison Bader is as Larry David would say, pretty, pretty, pretty good.

I mean, are you kidding me with this catch? Wow.

You know how Oakland has about 5 miles of foul territory? Well, Matt Chapman knows how to work it. He got Josh Reddick on this long run and slide to make the catch.

What To Watch On Monday

When Cleveland travels to Boston to play the Red Sox, the first matchup will be between two former Cy Young winners Corey Kluber and Rick Porcello. Both pitchers have 15 wins and both teams lead their division. Every time I say a matchup should be a good one, it never works out that way so I won’t say it.

Houston is travelling from Oakland to Seattle for more in-division fun. In the first game, Gerrit Cole will be facing Felix Hernandez whose tenure in the Mariners bullpen was shorter than Britney Spears’ first marriage. Oakland will be hosting the Rangers. At the time this was written, undecided was listed as Texas’s starter. I haven’t heard much about him but I have heard of Mike Fiers who is starting for Oakland. It’s his third start since coming over from Detroit.