Astros Ace Hopes Normal Rest Keeps Him Sharp vs. Rangers

ARLINGTON, Texas — There’s Justin Verlander and then there’s Justin Verlander on normal rest. The veteran Houston Astros right-hander is hoping to be the latter when he faces the Texas Rangers in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series on Friday afternoon.

Verlander last pitched on Sunday in Game 1, which means Friday’s start will be on a normal rest cycle. When Verlander started Game 1, he hadn’t pitched in a full week.

Sometimes, he says, the additional rest can be more of a hindrance than a help.

“We saw the other night I was a little erratic early on, and started to get better as the game went on,” Verlander said. “I'm hopeful, although you still don't know, I'm hopeful that that will be something I can piggyback off of since I didn't have a long rest.”

Verlander and the Astros will face the same pitcher they face in Game 1 — Rangers left-hander Jordan Montgomery.

The box score says that Verlander didn’t struggle. He went 6.2 innings, giving up six hits, two earned runs and two walks while he struck out five. But, you have to dig a little deeper to see the struggle in a game in which the Astros didn’t manage a run off Montgomery and three Rangers relievers.

After retiring the side in order in the first, the Rangers chipped away at Verlander in the second, extending his pitch count even though they only scored one run, which came on an RBI single by Jonah Heim. Verlander had to extract himself from a bases-loaded jam, too, getting Marcus Semien to pop out to Jose Altuve.

He sharpened up after that, retiring the side in order in the third and in the fourth before giving up a solo home run to Leody Taveras in the fifth.

In the seventh, he had to hand trouble to reliever Hector Neris after he walked Heim and allowed a Taveras single. But Neris, like Verlander in the second, got Semien to pop out to end the inning.

Pitching every fifth day is Verlander’s normal routine. He said it helps him get locked in, especially when there’s only minor mechanical tinkering to do with his delivery. He’s had to do little of that lately, and he admitted there’s no sense in reinventing the wheel this late in the season.

But he has been watching this Rangers lineup carefully since his Game 1 start, looking to pick up any edge he can in anticipation of a second start.

“I'm watching a lot of the games and trying to see what those guys are doing, adjustment-wise on their end so that I can have an idea going forward what they're trying to do so I can adjust maybe preemptively,” Verlander said. “But you never know until you're out there and competing, that's when everything happens.”