The
Houston Astros have their swagger back.
Remember, before the
Los Angeles Dodgers had the greatest two months in major league history and before the
Cleveland Indians reeled off the longest winning streak in 100 years and before the
Washington Nationals clinched the NL East and the
Chicago Cubs inched closer to the NL Central title, the Astros were the big story in baseball. They were 42-16 through June 5 and seemed invincible, with a high-powered offense, two All-Star starters in
Dallas Keucheland
Lance McCullers Jr. and a deep bullpen.
Then came some injuries. Some of the pitchers regressed. The offense finally cooled off in August. The Astros went 11-17 that month and, with some uncertainty about the performance of Keuchel and McCullers, the front office made the big move it needed to make: On Aug. 31, the Astros acquired
Justin Verlander.
He has made three starts with Houston and won them all, allowing two runs and just 10 hits over 21 innings. On Sunday, he fanned 10 in seven innings in a 7-1 win over the
Seattle Mariners, as the Astros clinched their first AL West title and their first division title since winning the NL Central in 2001. At 91-58, the franchise record of 102 wins is probably out of reach with 13 games remaining, but a 7-6 finish would give them the second-most wins in Astros history.
Verlander's performance has undoubtedly erased the issue of who will start the first game of the division series. It has to be Verlander. While A.J. Hinch obviously has a huge amount of loyalty to Keuchel for what he has done for the Astros the past several years, Verlander is the better pitcher at the moment.
Sure, two of his three starts with the Astros have come against the Mariners and the other against the Angels, but he owns a 1.99 ERA over his past 14 starts with 110 strikeouts and 23 walks in 95 innings. His swing-and-miss rate on Sunday was 38.6 percent, his highest of any game this season.
In looking through Verlander's season, one thing pops out at me: He's throwing his fastball more than he did early on. Through July, he was throwing it about 57 percent of the time, but that has been around 62 percent the past two months. That translates to only an extra five or six fastballs per game, but it does suggest more confidence in the command he has of the pitch. We can see that in his rate of 0-0 fastballs:
Through July: 65.7 percent
Since Aug. 1: 79.7 percent
It's the oldest philosophy in pitching: Get ahead with the fastball and put 'em away with the breaking stuff. While this isn't the Verlander who throws 100 mph, he still throws plenty hard.
His average fastball velocity on the season is 95.3 mph. When Verlander posted a 4.54 ERA in 2014 and saw his strikeout rate drop drastically (159 in 206 innings) and then made just 20 starts in 2015, there were concerns his best days were behind him. Instead, he has made the transition from power pitcher to ... well, still a power pitcher. Maybe he hasn't had the overall season of dominance that Chris Sale and Corey Kluber have had, but Verlander looks like an ace right now. And that's going to give the Astros all the confidence they need heading into the postseason.
Russell with a pinch hit hr in his 1st game in 6 weeks 
just read cardinals reddit/vivas los birdos 
