New York Mets ace Justin Verlander has been very good, for a very long time.
Add those two factors together and the career records begin to accumulate.
Verlander, 40, earned the victory Wednesday night in the Mets’ 2-1 win over the Cincinnati Reds.
It’s career victory No. 245 for Verlander, and it also marked an impressive milestone: Verlander has now defeated all 30 MLB teams.
How rare is that? Only 21 pitchers in MLB history have turned the feat. The list features many of the names you would expect, including Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling, Gerrit Cole, Max Scherzer, Bartolo Colón, and Kevin Brown.
Now Verlander joins the list.
The veteran pitched seven innings against the Reds, and after yielding a run in the first inning, he turned on the afterburners, retiring 18 of the last 19 batters he faced.
2 strikeouts in the 7th from Justin Verlander! pic.twitter.com/SdXJCYrLPk
— SNY (@SNYtv) May 11, 2023
Verlander admitted the achievement is special, but he especially enjoyed calling out a teammate who overlooked what he had done.
“Anytime you do something that not many people have done in this game, it’s pretty cool,” Verlander said (via SNY). “The reason I like it more than anything is because my compadre, (Mets reliever) David Robertson, didn’t give it a shout-out in the post-game when he gave me the pitcher of the game, so I got to give him a hard time about that, which I really enjoyed.”
Justin Verlander said he got to give David Robertson a hard time during their Pitcher of the Game locker room presentation because he failed to note he now got a win vs. all 30 teams 😂 pic.twitter.com/itpQYR3ePw
— SNY (@SNYtv) May 11, 2023
[MLB.com]
