{"id":74471,"date":"2024-05-25T19:17:24","date_gmt":"2024-05-25T23:17:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=74471"},"modified":"2024-05-25T19:17:24","modified_gmt":"2024-05-25T23:17:24","slug":"justin-verlander-future-hall-of-famer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/05\/25\/justin-verlander-future-hall-of-famer\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston Astros Ace One Step Closer to Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/v\/verlaju01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-05-25_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Justin Verlander<\/a>\u2019s case for being a future Hall of Famer just got a little stronger as he entered the top 10 on the MLB all-time strikeout list. The Astros ace went into Friday\u2019s contest at 11th on the all-time strikeouts list, three behind the great <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/maddugr01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-05-25_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Greg Maddux<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He surpassed Maddux with a strikeout of former Astro <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/t\/toroab01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-05-25_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Abraham Toro<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to end the second inning. It was one of those full-circle baseball moments for the pair of former teammates. In 2019, Toro hit a tie-breaking two-run homer then fielded the final out to complete Verlander&#8217;s third career no-hitter.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Justin Verlander passes Greg Maddux for 10th place all time in strikeouts! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ONlnAB50m1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/ONlnAB50m1<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 MLB (@MLB) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MLB\/status\/1794189851585396839?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 25, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Verlander<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> struck out a season-high nine batters across six innings giving up two runs (one earned) in Friday&#8217;s 6-3 win over the Oakland Athletics. The win also marked Verlander\u2019s 260th career win, tying him for 41st on the all-time wins list alongside <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/l\/lyonste01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-05-25_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ted Lyons<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;I feel like I should be more excited, but I feel like I&#8217;m a little more introspective and reflective,&#8221; Verlander said after the game. \u201cI don\u2019t know if, as a 21-or-22-year-old kid in professional baseball, if I thought I would be in the top 10 of anything. This sport\u2019s been around for so long. So yeah, hard to put into words.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He passed <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/03\/26\/max-scherzer-justin-verlander-career-strikeout-leaders\/\" target=\"_self\">former\u00a0teammate <\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/scherma01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-05-25_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Max Scherzer<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (3,367) for 12th all-time in his last start against the Milwaukee Brewers. The two were teammates twice, first with the Detroit Tigers (2010-2014), then with the New York Mets for part of last season. Verlander increased his career total to 3,377 by striking out nine A\u2019s over six innings of work on Friday. All but one (<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/clemero02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-05-25_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Roger Clemens<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) of the nine pitchers with more career strikeouts than Verlander are enshrined in Cooperstown.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Justin Verlander Cementing His Status as a Future Hall of Famer<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of the 10 pitchers who sat above him before Friday, each of them pitched at least 20 seasons in the majors. Justin Verlander, now in his 19th season, has achieved so much throughout his Hall of Fame-worthy career. He underwent Tommy John surgery four years ago with no guarantee that the now 41-year-old would be as good as he was before.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He returned post-Tommy John surgery in 2022, winning his third Cy Young Award\u00a0and his second World Series with the Astros. Verlander has since pitched to a 34-14 record with a 2.58 ERA and 364 strikeouts in 62 appearances between the Astros and the Mets.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Astros ace <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/04\/15\/houston-astros-ace-season-debut\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">got a late start<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to the 2024 season after shoulder inflammation delayed his off-season throwing program. If he can stay healthy, Justin Verlander could challenge <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=johnswa01,johnso013wal&amp;search=Walter+Johnson&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-05-25_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Walter Johnson<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (3,509) for ninth all-time in strikeouts and <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/weyhigu01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-05-25_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gus Weyhing<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (264) for 39th all-time in wins.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Justin Verlander\u2019s case for being a future Hall of Famer just got a little stronger as he entered the top 10 on the MLB all-time strikeout list. The Astros ace went into Friday\u2019s contest at 11th on the all-time strikeouts list, three behind the great Greg Maddux.\u00a0 He surpassed Maddux with a strikeout of former [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4975,"featured_media":74488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1071,35],"tags":[3402,792,85,876,247,79,164,2431],"class_list":["post-74471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-astros","category-mlb","category-news","tag-abraham-toro","tag-baseball-hall-of-fame","tag-detroit-tigers","tag-greg-maddux","tag-justin-verlander","tag-max-scherzer","tag-new-york-mets","tag-ted-lyons"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4975"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}