HOUSTON — The third start of Justin Verlander’s season was undoubtedly his best yet, and in many ways it was vintage Verlander. He hit 97 mph with his fastball, got some big outs in key moments and needed only 97 pitches to polish off a season-high seven innings of work.
That wasn’t enough for the Astros to keep their winning ways going, though, as the Guardians — playing their fourth extra-inning game in a row — got an RBI double by Steven Kwan in the top of the 10th inning and a game-ending diving play by Kwan in the bottom of the inning to beat Houston, 3-2, on Wednesday night at Minute Maid Park.
“That’s a great performance,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “We needed him to go deep in the game and he did just that. He gave us a chance to win the game. That’s Justin Verlander at his best right there.”
Verlander, who didn’t make his first start of the season until April 19 after right shoulder inflammation put him behind in the spring, allowed two earned runs, six hits and three walks while taking a no-decision. It was the 343rd quality start of his career, moving him past Jamie Moyer for 22nd on the all-time list.
“Still had too many erratic pitches, I thought,” Verlander said. “I had some nice defensive plays behind me and was able to kind of force the issue against a team that doesn’t swing and miss a lot. They put the ball in play a lot. My game plan was to attack and try to get them to make some quick outs and get deep in the game, especially after the bullpen being taxed after last night.”
The Astros used all four of their high-leverage relievers in Tuesday’s 10-9 walk-off win, including the first two-inning outing by closer Josh Hader in five years. After lasting only 4 1/3 innings against the Cubs at Wrigley Field on Wednesday, Verlander knew he had to pitch deep.
Kwan started the game with a hit off the left-field wall, but outfielder Joey Loperfido barehanded the ball and threw out Kwan at second base. Verlander raised his fist in support of the rookie, who made the best defensive play of his young career.
“Obviously, huge play,” Verlander said. “Love it. I gave him a fist pump, ‘Appreciate ya,’ and back to work. At this level, you see a lot of great plays and sometimes guys do incredible stuff. That was a really nice play off the wall there — barehand, turnaround spin, throw, perfect throw. It had to be perfect. It was a bang-bang play. It was huge for us. Who knows? That guy scores and we lose in regulation potentially. Who knows? I try to keep an even keel.”
Will Brennan hit a leadoff homer in the fifth and Kwan — him again — added an RBI triple later in the inning to make it 2-0. Jose Altuve got the Astros on the board with an RBI single in the sixth off Triston McKenzie — his second hit of the season in 18 at-bats with runners in scoring position — and Kyle Tucker led off the seventh with a Statcast-projected 422-foot homer to right field to tie the game at 2.
Verlander was at 91 pitches through six innings and needed only six pitches to get three flyouts in the seventh inning and end his outing.
“Joe let me go back out there,” he said. “I had a conversation with him, obviously. At some point I need to build my capacity to 100-plus pitches and more than six innings, and I thought this was a perfect opportunity for that, especially given the bullpen last night.
“He agreed, and we all kind of knew I was on a short-ish pitch count. I felt the juice was worth the squeeze there… I think that put us in a much better position, particularly since it was such a close ballgame. If we were going to go extra innings, it gave us a better chance to win.”
Alas, catcher Victor Caratini made a baserunning gaffe in the bottom of the 10th when he tried to score from second base on a sinking liner off the bat of Mauricio Dubón that was snagged by a diving Kwan. He threw to second for a game-ending double play.
“The ball was hit up above my head and I looked and thought there was a chance it was going to drop,” Caratini said.
