Veteran Houston Astros pitcher Justin Verlander said he will donate his adjusted paycheck during MLB's coronavirus shutdown to multiple organizations providing assistance during the crisis.
Verlander made the announcement via Instagram on Saturday along with his wife, Kate Upton.
"Everyone around the world is affected by this virus, and we hope to contribute to the families and jobs affected, the healthcare workers and first responders on the front lines and the many others in need of basic necessities, medical supplies and support at home," Verlander wrote on his post.
"As soon as the first paycheck is received we will be highlighting the first organization."
MLB players are receiving up-front pay while baseball is on hiatus. Verlander is scheduled to receive $286,500 over the course of 60 days, with players obligated to pay back the up-front sum if the season is played.
The 37-year old was scheduled to make $33 million this season.
"We know everyone is impacted by this crisis, but for those who are able, we encourage you to stay home to help flatten the curve and look to those around you who need a helping hand," Verlander wrote.
Verlander was the American League's Cy Young Award winner in 2019, after he finished with a 21-6 record and a 2.58 ERA over 34 starts. He pitched a league-best 223 innings for the Astros.
The two-time Cy Young Award winner and 2011 AL MVP is 225-129 over 453 starts during a 15-year career with the Detroit Tigers and Astros.
-Field Level Media/Reuters-
The Houston Astros opened the 2019 World Series with Gerrit Cole on the mound, followed by Justin Verlander and Zack Greinke. But the first starter to earn a victory in the quest for a championship was rookie Jose Urquidy.
What the right-hander lacked in star power, he made up in grit and creativity during Game 4 on Saturday, mixing his pitches well to keep the Washington Nationals off balance as the visiting Astros earned an 8-1 victory.
Urquidy, with just a handful of major league outings to his credit, eased the burden of a bullpen game, dominating over five scoreless innings in Game 4, leveling the series at 2-2 with Game 5 set for Sunday in Washington.
"(Urquidy) was working really hard there to mix it up," Astros second baseman Jose Altuve said on MLB Network after collecting his third consecutive multi-hit game in the series. "The fastball and changeup played really good today. I'm happy he threw five innings the way he did it, because obviously we needed that."
Robinson Chirinos hit a home run for the second consecutive game, and Alex Bregman hit a grand slam and drove in five runs as the Astros picked up their second straight victory after losing the first two. Bregman and Michael Brantley each had three hits.
A team meeting after the Astros lost the first two games of the series has done the club wonders.
"It was (a meeting) about bringing the guys back to what we have been doing all year," Chirinos said on MLB Network. "... It was about reminding the guys of what kind of team we are. It was a short meeting, it was a really good meeting, and I feel like it was a perfect time to do that meeting after the second loss."
The Astros planned on stringing together appearances from their relievers in Game 4, using the 24-year-old Urquidy to kick things off. Instead, the right-hander gave his team some length, allowing just two hits and no walks while striking out four. Five more relievers finished off the final four innings.
After four World Series games, no team has won at home. The last time the road team won the first four games of a World Series was in 1996, when the Atlanta Braves faced the New York Yankees, who won the final two games of the series.
The Astros' victory Saturday ensures the series will head back to Houston for a Game 6 on Tuesday. Game 7, if necessary, would be Wednesday in Houston.
After sitting at 19-31 on May 23 and coming all this way, the Nationals insist they won't fret about a losing two consecutive World Series games.
"We've been here pretty much all year," Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. "We have two of our big horses (Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg) going in the next two games. We haven't hit in the last couple of days, but I have confidence we'll bounce back. ... I just told the boys, ‘Hey, we're in the World Series, about to play Game 5 tied 2-2. Who would have thought that in the beginning?'"
Bregman drove in his first run of the game in the first inning on a single to center field, Houston's third straight single. Yuli Gurriel made it four in a row with an infield single for a 2-0 lead. Chirinos hit a two-run home run to left off Nationals left-hander Patrick Corbin for a 4-0 lead in the fourth.
Corbin (1-3 this postseason) gave up four runs on seven hits over six innings, with two walks and five strikeouts. Nationals starters have gone at least five innings in each of the team's 14 postseason games.
Juan Soto put the Nationals on the scoreboard in the sixth inning with a run-scoring groundout before Bregman crushed his grand slam to left field in the seventh off right-hander Fernando Rodney.
Urquidy (1-0), the third Mexican-born pitcher ever to start a World Series game, had just nine career appearances and two victories before the playoffs started. His five innings Saturday were more than the 4 1/3 innings he pitched in his two previous playoff appearances combined.
Urquidy's 15 outs and 67 pitches in Game 4 were key after the Astros needed 4 1/3 innings from five relievers in their Game 3 victory.
"What a day to bring his best," said Chirinos, who caught Urquidy's first major league outing on July 2. "I feel like tonight was the best I have seen him since he got called up to the big leagues."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
HOUSTON - The Houston Astros acquired Justin Verlander in the hopes that he would be the final piece to their World Series puzzle and now the veteran right-hander will get a chance to lead his team to a maiden championship.
Houston lead the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-2 in the best-of-seven World Series and will just happen to have the postseason's hottest pitcher on the mound when the Fall Classic resumes on the West Coast on Tuesday.
"These are what it's all about," said Verlander. "These are the moments that you want to be a part of as a baseball player. It's everything you could ask for."
Verlander, who has yet to win a World Series, has already exceeded expectations when the Astros acquired him a mere minutes before the trade deadline at the end of August.
The 34-year-old former ace of the Detroit Tigers staff has started nine games for the Astros over the last two months and won them all. He even pitched once in relief, and Houston won that one, too.
Astros manager A.J. Hinch, when asked if Verlander fits into his description of a "big-game pitcher", said the co-ace of his staff fits into a lot of categories given an ability to block out distractions and execute pitches no matter the stage.
"I like more calling these guys big-time pitchers before the game, because that's what we expect. We expect them to prepare the same. We expect them to show up ready to play. We expect them to produce the executed pitches," said Hinch.
"When you can do that on this kind of stage you're called a big-time pitcher regardless of your performance. But oftentimes these guys step up and deliver big-time results, too."
Verlander is one of just three active players on the Astros and Dodgers rosters with previous World Series experience. He reached the Fall Classic twice with Detroit in 2006 and 2012 but did not pitch particularly well either time.
But the six-time All-Star and former Cy Young Award winner as the American League's best pitcher has since seemingly always managed to find another gear in pressure-packed situations.
Verlander did just that in the American League Championship Series when, with the Astros facing elimination, he stepped up to the challenge by pitching seven shutout innings in a 7-1 victory that forced a decisive seventh game.
He attributes part of his success to being able to manage his intensity level during the regular season when the stakes are not as high and therefore allowing him to find another gear come the postseason.
"You can't focus that much mental energy and physical drain on hanging on every single pitch that way and the crowd and the intensity, that it all encompasses, you just can't do that every single day out for 34, 35 starts," said Verlander.
"But as soon as the postseason starts you're living or dying on every single pitch, and your whole team is living or dying on every single pitch. It changes everything."
(Reporting by Frank Pingue; Editing by Amlan Chakraborty)
source: news.abs-cbn.com
LOS ANGELES -- Los Angeles ace Clayton Kershaw and Houston hurler Justin Verlander lead the Dodgers and Astros into the 113th World Series here Tuesday seeking to capture a first Major League Baseball crown.
Kershaw and Verlander, perhaps the two greatest pitchers of their generation, boast a wealth individual honors, but neither has captured the ultimate prize.
Kershaw, the southpaw from Texas whose resume includes one National League Most Valuable Player award, three NL Cy Young award and seven All-Star selections, gets his first chance after helping the Dodgers reach the World Series for the first time since they last won it all in 1988.
Verlander, a former American League Rookie of the Year, MVP and Cy Young award-winner, has pitched in two World Series, as a rookie with the Tigers in 2006 and again with Detroit in 2012 when they were swept by San Francisco.
He's 0-3 in World Series starts -- a record he aims to change with the Astros, the team he joined in a trade from Detroit on August 31 just in time to be included on their post-season roster.
"Obviously he's a premier performer at the highest times, the most intense times," Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. "And you can't teach that. And you can't buy it. You have to have it or you don't. And Verlander has it."
Verlander is coming off two sensational starts that earned him MVP honors in the American League Championship Series triumph over the New York Yankees.
He held the Yankees to one run over 16 innings, notching 21 strikeouts.
"Verlander, if that dude wasn't a first-ballot Hall of Famer before this post-season, he is now," Astros pitcher Lance McCullers said. "The impact he's brought on this team, the way that he goes about his business after all these years, you cannot say enough about what he's done for us and how he's built his legacy."
Kershaw, who was long unable to translate his regular-season dominance into post-season success, allowed just one run on three hits with five strikeouts in six innings in the final game of the Dodgers' National League Championship Series triumph over the defending champion Chicago Cubs.
- Four more wins -
He was promptly slated to pitch game one of the World Series on Tuesday by Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who says there was no sign that the back trouble that sidelined Kershaw for five weeks would be a problem.
"Physically, Clayton feels good," Roberts said. "Obviously, you saw the emotion after (the clinch). He'll be ready to go game one."
Kershaw called reaching the World Series "an incredibly special moment" but made it clear it wasn't "mission accomplished".
"You know, we have four more wins to go," he said. "We've 1988 so long in LA, it feels good to say that we're getting to the World Series in 2017, and with four more wins, hopefully get to get one home."
The Dodgers are seeking a seventh World Series title while the Astros, in the Fall Classic for just the second time, are in pursuit of their first.
The Dodgers led the major leagues with 104 regular-season wins while the Astros notched 101.
The Dodgers disposed of the Cubs in five games in the NLCS while the Astros were pushed to the brink by the Yankees in the ALCS, falling behind 3-2 in the series before winning the last two games at home to deny New York a 41st World Series berth.
While Houston may not provide the glamour that would have surrounded a Dodgers-Yankees match-up, the Astros' game one starting pitcher Dallas Keuchel believes they'll bring plenty of game.
"Quality ballclub," Keuchel, the 2015 AL Cy Young award-winner said of the Dodgers. "They led the Major Leagues in wins for a reason. They're not to be taken lightly -- but we're not to be either."
- Two teams standing -
The teams do have some post-season history, dating back to the days before realignment landed the Astros in the American League in 2013.
Houston eliminated the Dodgers in a one-game NL West division tiebreaker in 1980, and Los Angeles downed Houston en route to a World Series title in the strike-disrupted 1981 season.
This clash will see the Astros' explosive offense -- which led the majors in runs scored with the second-highest number of home runs -- challenging a formidable Dodgers pitching staff that was beefed up in the wake of last season's playoff loss to the Cubs.
"There's two teams standing," Hinch said. "It's a race to four wins now."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
