Justin Verlander Reveals the At-Bat That Still Lives in His Nightmares
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Future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander visited the “On Base with Mookie Betts” Podcast, where Mookie Betts interviews Major League players with different perspectives, including ABS questions, which have to do with a challenge in which interviewees have to determine whether a pitch was a strike. But among so many questions, confessions, and glorious memories, something that generated the most interest was when Justin Verlander revealed which at-bat still lives in his nightmares.
Mookie Betts: What’s a bat that still lives in your nightmares?
Justin Verlander: That’s a good question. That’s an easy one for me. A-Rod’s 3,000th hit was a homer off me.
Mookie Betts: Oh, okay. So you’re taking me through that.
Justin Verlander: So—arms killing me. It was one of those, it was like, uh, um, one of those years where like it’s the first year of my career. I think I forget what year it was probably is either 13 or 14, probably 14. And, uh, I’m grinding.
Um, and, uh, I knew A-Rod was coming up on 3000. Like he had had 2,999 coming into that game.
Mookie Betts: So, oh, so you knew it already.
Justin Verlander: Oh yeah. Everybody knows.
Mookie Betts: Um, and he comes up and I, I mean, I gave it everything I had.
Justin Verlander: It was the fastest pitch I threw the whole game.
Mookie Betts: How hard was it?
Justin Verlander: 96. I mean, I was grinding. And he, you know, clipped me backside.
Mookie Betts: Backside homer. Yankee Stadium.
Justin Verlander: I mean, you know it’s going to be backside.
Mookie Betts: Oh my gosh.
The interesting story here is that there were two different stories, before and after that moment. Alex Rodriguez had faced Verlander for the first time since 2006, but he did not hit his first home run until 2009. In those first six seasons, between 2006 and 2011, Verlander had A-Rod in his pocket, allowing only 4-for-18, with a double, a home run and four RBIs, with three walks and two strikeouts in those 22 matchups.
The story changed around that time, when the Detroit Tigers managed to be as strong as the New York Yankees, to the point of knocking them out of the postseason in 2006, 2011 and 2012.
Those were also great years for Verlander, but A-Rod got the better of him in that stretch between 2012 and 2015, batting .500 with 7-for-14, four home runs and six RBIs.
That 2015 home run was Rodriguez’s last against Verlander, which included him in the very short list of only five batters with at least five home runs in their career. Verlander dominated A-Rod in his next three at-bats in 2016, but, as he confirmed to Mookie, that home run to reach 3,000 hits was a nightmare.
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Yirsandy is a baseball writer specializing in MLB coverage with experience across multiple teams and storylines. He currently writes for Diamond Centric, where he covers the New York Mets, San Diego Padres, Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee Brewers, and Kansas City Royals. My work focuses on game coverage, player analysis, and storytelling that connects performance with context. My Substack has also been an important part of my writing development, where I’ve built much of my baseball coverage and storytelling voice over time. I’m passionate about combining reporting, research, and thoughtful analysis to produce engaging baseball content for readers.
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