Houston Astros' Ace Hits Multiple Milestones in Friday Win

The Houston Astros picked up a game in the American League West standings and Justin Verlander picked up a few historic milestones as well.

Brady Farkas | May 25, 2024

May 20, 2024; Houston, Texas, USA; Houston Astros starting pitcher Justin Verlander (35) works out prior to the game against the Los Angeles Angels at Minute Maid Park. Mandatory Credit: Erik Williams-USA TODAY Sports / Erik Williams-USA TODAY Sports

The Houston Astros beat the Oakland Athletics on Friday night by a score of 6-3 in Oakland. With the win, the Astros moved to 23-28 overall, and while the overall record isn't great, they are just 3.5 games back right now of the slumping Seattle Mariners in the American League West.

Offensively, Yordan Alvarez, Jose Altuve and Jon Singleton each had multi-hit games and on the mound, Justin Verlander dominated as he has many times in his career.

The righty went 6.0 innings, surrendering just one earned run on eight hits. He walked none and struck out nine in moving to 3-2 on the year with a 3.60 ERA.

Verlander also hit multiple historic milestones in the performance, according to the @MLB account on "X:"

Justin Verlander picks up his 260th W and moves into 10th place on the all-time strikeout list in the @Astros win!

Justin Verlander picks up his 260th W and moves into 10th place on the all-time strikeout list in the @Astros win! pic.twitter.com/eB7Cs4gt9W
— MLB (@MLB) May 25, 2024

The 41-year-old is in the 19th year of his major league career (20 if you include the 2021 season he missed all of with injury) with the Detroit Tigers, New York Mets and Astros. His 260 wins are the most in baseball currently.

One of the best pitchers of the 2000s, Verlander is a nine-time All-Star, a three-time Cy Young winner, a two-time ERA champion and an MVP winner. He is also a two-time World Series champion with the Astros (2017 and 2022).

The Astros and A's will be in action again on Saturday afternoon at 4:07 p.m. ET. Spencer Arrighetti (HOU) pitches against J.P. Sears (OAK).

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Published May 25, 2024

BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady.