Justin Verlander brought the heat. With fastballs, then fury.
Upset that his Houston Astros had blown a two-run lead in the 10th inning, the Houston ace stormed from the clubhouse to the dugout in gym clothes before the 11th to talk to his teammates.
To holler at them, more like it.
Photo: EPA
His message: “Stay positive. Remember how good you are.”
Good enough to hang tough and win a thrilling Game 2 of the World Series. The Astros outlasted the Los Angeles Dogers 7-6 on Wednesday night and left Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles with things tied at 1-1.
Verlander threw six strong innings, allowing just two hits. The no-decision let him remain 9-0 since being traded from the Detroit Tigers to Houston on Aug. 31.
Maybe more than his pitching, it was his perfect timing that spurred the Astros.
It was not quite the calm, reassuring talk that Boston Red Sox star David Ortiz delivered in the dugout during a moment in the 2013 World Series in St Louis, Missouri, but it seemed to have the same effect.
“I don’t even know if anybody heard me,” Verlander said.
Oh, they did.
Asked what Verlander shouted, star shortstop Carlos Correa quoted him.
“Let’s,” Correa said, pausing for effect to omit a certain word, “go.”
Just what the Astros expect from the big guy, a former Most Valuable Player and Cy Young Award winner.
“He was loud. He was firm. He’s a leader,” Correa said.
Verlander, who is 0-3 with a 6.43 ERA in World Series play after this no-decision, exited with the Astros trailing 3-1.
Moments after a close, full-count pitch was called on a ball with two outs in the sixth, Corey Seager hit a two-run homer.
Going into the late innings, especially against the deep Dodgers relief corps, it was starting to look dire for the slumping Astros, but not to Verlander.
He kept exhorting his club, telling the team it was not nearly over.
“It’s so easy in this game to get down, especially when — I mean, we have the TV on before the games. You see everyone saying how great this Dodger bullpen is and how our offense hasn’t been going,” he said.
“It’s so easy to say: ‘Man, we’re probably not going to win this game, down two against one of the best bullpens in baseball.’ I just wanted to really remind these guys how great they are,” Verlander added.
Houston was the highest-scoring team in the majors this year. On this evening, the Astros and Dodgers combined for a Series-record eight home runs.
So being down going into the late innings was not worth worrying about.
“This team, since I’ve been here, and I know it hasn’t been that long, but two runs is nothing,” Verlander said. “And all of a sudden two runs seemed like it was the Grand Canyon.”
And now, with a boost from Verlander’s voice, the Astros are not in a big hole, either.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB