Houston Astros' Justin Verlander earns first World Series victory
(CBS DETROIT) - Across three decades, five World Series' and 35 postseason appearances (34 of them starts), Justin Verlander pitched his way into the history books Thursday night, earning his first World Series win.
While that inevitable "W" took quite some time, it definitely did not come easy.
The last batter standing in the way of Verlander's complete five innings of work was former Detroit Tigers teammate of nearly five seasons, Nick Castellanos. With the tying run on second base, a 10-pitch at-bat followed suit between the two.
However, seven pitches into that at-bat, Castellanos wouldn't give in, so catcher Martin Maldonado walked out to the mound to smooth things over.
"The conversation is like, let's get this pitch right. You know this is the ballgame here or potentially could be, and in those situations, we're not going to risk this back and forth between him and I and what's the right pitch here," Verlander said after the game while talking to MLB Network.
Mixing in a variety of curveballs, sliders, and his only changeup of the night, Verlander finally got Castellanos to fly out to left field, granting himself in line for his first career World Series win.
Despite the win, Verlander's historic night came at quite a cost.
In a 48-hour span, the Astros were on the wrong side of setting two postseason home run records. On Tuesday, Astros starting pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. allowed five home runs, good for the most home runs ever given up in a single game by a pitcher.
On Thursday, Kyle Schwarber's first inning solo shot off Verlander was the 10th home run he'd given up in a World Series game. That long ball set the record for most home runs given up by a pitcher in World Series history.
Now with that highly sought-after win under his belt, his career numbers in the World Series look slightly better at a 1-6 record with a 5.63 ERA in 48 innings pitched.
Fortunately for Verlander, he can finally sleep easy at night with that first-ever World Series victory. As for the fans and the history books, there's no telling if and when we'll see him take the mound again in the Fall Classic.