Justin Verlander: Five moments that defined a Hall of Fame career

Justin Verlander’s right arm was a gift to the game. And most notably to the Detroit Tigers and Houston Astros.

The former drafted him and threw him into Major League Baseball’s deep end shortly thereafter, while the latter became his second home after a late-career trade that saw him refine his craft, ratchet up his dominance and become a World Series champion.

The 266 wins, 3,554 strikeouts and three Cy Young Awards are more than enough evidence his Cooperstown case is airtight. Yet Verlander, who announced Wednesday, July 8 that he will retire after this season, was so much more than just the numbers.

Sure, he had his share of big-game failings — 556 career starts and 10 trips to the postseason will bring its share of rainfall — but Verlander also stood tall when it mattered most countless times.

Here’s five moments that defined Verlander’s nearly peerless career:

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Justin Verlander: Yankee killer

Verlander made his major league debut July 4, 2005 and had just a two-start cameo before winning 17 games in claiming the 2006 Rookie of the Year award.

Yet before that plaque would be officially awarded, Verlander stood in old Yankee Stadium, Game 2 of the AL Division Series, with the Tigers — a curiosity that hadn’t reached the playoffs in 19 years — already trailing 1-0. A “New York Times live blog” of the event seemed to portend baseball’s future.

“Verlander,” it noted, “is now hitting 100 mph with his fastball.”

The kid would strike out five in 5 1/3 innings as the Tigers gained a split at the Stadium and stunned the heavily favored Yankees in the ALDS.

And so began a couple patterns: The Tigers were legit. And Verlander was Kryptonite for the Yankees.

Five years later, he’d strike out 11 in eight innings of 2011 ALDS Game 3, and the Tigers would vanquish the Yankees in five. In 2012, it was eight shutout innings, stretching his postseason scoreless streak to 23, before a ninth-inning homer in an ALCS Game 3 win as the Tigers eliminated the Yankees in five.

And then there was Houston.

Verlander’s 11^th-hour approval of a deal from Detroit to the Astros on Aug. 31, 2017 had a massive impact on the sport. Verlander was the ace the budding dynasty Astros needed, and he proved it in that year’s ALCS: A five-hitter with 13 strikeouts in a 2-1 Game 2 win, and seven shutout innings in a Game 6 victory. Houston would clinch the pennant a night later.

The Yankees finally got him 2019, scratching out four runs in seven innings of ALCS Game 5. Three years later, though, a 39-year-old Verlander would strike out 11 in six shutout innings of ALCS Game 1. The Astros would sweep to win another World Series.

The Yankees can only wonder how many Fall Classics the kid from Old Dominion locked them out of.

Justin Verlander: MVP

There is a certain “know it when you see it” element to pitchers winning Most Valuable Player awards. After all, they’ve got their own little Cy Young Award, which is often more than sufficient to honor the most dominant arm in the game.

Yet in 2011, you knew it when you saw it with Verlander.

Nobody wins 20 games anymore, and hardly anyone pitches 200 innings. Well, in that blessed season, Verlander won 24 games, pitched 251 innings, struck out 250 batters, posted a 2.40 ERA and 0.92 WHIP and led either the majors or the AL in all those categories.

He completed seven innings in 26 of his 34 starts. In 11 of those, he pitched eight or nine innings and allowed two or fewer runs. He struck out 250 and walked 57.

Wanna know what a pitcher’s MVP season looks like? It's that.

Justin Verlander: No-hit knack

Verlander joined an exclusive club on Sept. 1, 2019, by tossing his third no-hitter: Only Nolan Ryan, Larry Corcoran, Cy Young, Bob Feller and Sandy Koufax have thrown that many.

Want a more exclusive club? Verlander went more than eight years between no-hitters, pulling the feat off against the Toronto Blue Jays both times. Only Randy Johnson — who went 11 years — had a longer time in between.

How long has this freaking guy been pitching? Well, his three no-hitters landed in the presidential terms of George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

Justin Verlander: Winner-take-all hero

Only twice has Verlander started a winner-take-all game. They came in consecutive years, against the same opponent, in the same stadium. And both performances were equally dominant.

Verlander’s lone postseason shutout came Oct. 11, 2012, in ALDS Game 5 at the Oakland Coliseum. A spirited five-game set ended quietly, as Verlander punched out 11 A’s, walked one and gave up four hits.

Almost exactly a year later — Oct. 10, 2013 — it was as close to a carbon copy as you could get: Eight shutout innings, 10 strikeouts, one walk, two hits, and Joaquin Benoit on to save it in the ninth. A Miguel Cabrera fourth-inning moonshot off Sonny Gray quieted the 46,959 on hand at the Coliseum.

Yet it was Verlander who snuffed out the opponent’s hopes, as he so often did.

Justin Verlander: Finally, a World Series win

By 2022, the game had changed so much, and when the Astros reached the World Series, we saw that up close: They pitched a World Series no-hitter but needed four pitchers to do so.

A night later, the tension of the game’s past and present collided in the bottom of the fifth inning at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park.

Verlander was nursing a 2-1 lead when he struck out Rhys Hoskins and J.T. Realmuto to begin the inning. But then Bryce Harper rocketed a double — 115.3 mph off the bat — to right field.

Verlander’s tank was nearly empty, a 39-year-old who’d struck out six and was sitting on 84 pitches. The dangerous Nick Castellanos was at the plate.

Dusty Baker, as old school a manager as you can find, wanted Verlander to notch his first World Series victory in nine tries. He needed just one more out.

Yet the Series was tied, 2-2. A base hit from Castellanos, and the game would be similarly knotted.

Baker let him face Castellanos. And a couple hours later, Baker was searching for Verlander in the visiting clubhouse, wanting to give him the lineup card from his first World Series win. It took him 10 pitches, including five foul balls, but Verlander got a harmless fly ball to left field from Castellanos. Another battle won. Another start, maximized.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Justin Verlander: Five moments that defined a Hall of Fame career