'They know me pretty well': Longtime teammates best Verlander

HOUSTON -- When the Mets’ clubhouse opened to the media on Monday afternoon, a group of more than a dozen local journalists, armed with cameras, pens and notepads, bustled into the room and crowded around Justin Verlander's locker. Only one thing was missing: Verlander.

Sitting at a nearby table as he wrapped up a phone call, Verlander raised his eyebrows at the scene and let out a little laugh. His five seasons in Texas, which included two AL Cy Young Awards, a no-hitter, a Tommy John surgery, three All-Star selections and two World Series titles, had made Verlander a popular figure around Minute Maid Park. But that was in the past. Over the offseason, Verlander bolted for New York and a guaranteed $86.6 million.

He had made his decision. This week offered him closure.

Later Monday, Verlander grinned and slapped hands with Dusty Baker as the Astros' manager presented him with his 2022 World Series ring. Verlander caught up with former teammates and signed autographs for fans down the left-field line. The following night, the Astros played Verlander’s old walk-up music, “Till I Collapse” by Eminem, as he warmed on the mound he once called home.

The memories from this one would prove to be mixed, as Verlander allowed four runs in a 4-2 loss to the Astros on Tuesday night. But the gestures did not go unnoticed.

“I look back so fondly on my time here,” Verlander said of his days in Houston. “It was a wonderful chapter in my career, and I’m very thankful for it.”

At his new home, Verlander is finding it difficult to establish something similar in his 40s. Although Verlander has not pitched poorly with the Mets, his strikeout rate remains far below his career norm. His walk rate is up. His ERA is more than two and a half times higher than it was last year during his Cy Young-winning season. He sports a losing record for just the second time in the last 15 years.

More specifically, Verlander called Tuesday’s start “a bit frustrating” for two distinct reasons. One was the two-run homer he allowed to Alex Bregman on a 3-0 count in the third inning, which gave the Astros all the offense they would need. Despite knowing Bregman’s tendencies from having played with him for five seasons, Verlander tried to groove a fastball by him to avoid a free pass and the threat of a big inning. The result was a line-drive homer into the seats.

Still, Verlander managed to reach the later innings with a chance to keep things close. Once again, he cracked with two outs, this time on an RBI single from another longtime teammate, Jose Altuve.

“We know Verlander, and he knew us,” Baker said. “We got some big hits there.”

Although the Mets fought back with two runs in the eighth, that was all they could muster against Astros starter Framber Valdez, who set down the first 16 batters he faced in order. The result dropped Verlander to his fourth loss in nine starts.

“He was my teammate, but I really didn’t even pay attention,” Valdez said. “Every single time between innings, I was in the dugout trying to focus on going back out there and putting up zeros. I had a lot of fun going up against him.”

It was a reasonable outing from Verlander, but the Mets are paying him for more. After missing the first five weeks of the season due to injury, Verlander has allowed at least four earned runs in four of his past seven starts. Compare that to last year, when Verlander allowed at least four runs just twice all season -- the sort of results that can make a pitcher beloved.

During his time in Houston, Verlander got married and had a child. He went through, in his words, “a lot of maturity as a person, as a player.” Southeast Texas is not the place where Verlander became a modern baseball legend, but it’s where he transformed from a likely Hall of Famer to a surefire one.

“Clearly,” he said, “it was an incredible ride.”

New York is the place where he is trying to mimic that success at an older age, making a higher salary, with the weight of expectations ratcheted to the maximum.

Leave it to his old friends to make that task even more difficult.

“They know me pretty well, and I know them,” Verlander said. “I don’t think you try to change yourself. You just know it’s going to be a bit of a battle.”