The 41-year-old right-hander tossed 7.0 scoreless innings in what turned out to be a 9-3 road win for the Astros, giving up just two hits and two walks to the 25 batters he faced. It was quite the bounce-back performance for Verlander, who gave up seven earned runs in 5.0 innings against the, Verlander is the eighth pitcher to join that club since the start of the Wild Card era in 1994. Clayton Kershaw leads the way with 64 such starts, while Randy Johnson tossed 57 and Tim Hudson had 56.
Pedro Martinez, Greg Maddux and Adam Wainwright are next up on the leaderboards. Verlander's former Astros teammate, Zack Greinke, had 51 in his career.He’s the 8th pitcher to reach 50 such starts in the Wild Card Era, joining: Clayton Kershaw , Randy Johnson , Tim Hudson , Pedro Martínez , Greg Maddux & Adam Wainwright & Zack Greinke .
Verlander is 259-142 with a 3.24 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 3,365 strikeouts and an 81.1 WAR in his career. He's been so consistently great over the years that his latest gem Sunday took less than 0.007 off his lifetime ERA.With nine All-Star appearances, three Cy Youngs, two World Series rings and an MVP under his belt, there isn't much Verlander hasn't achieved. Now, Verlander has yet another bullet point that could be featured on his Hall of Fame plaque in Cooperstown.
Verlander also won his 101st game at Comerica Park on Sunday, which extends his lead for the most all-time. Hall of Famer Jack Morris won 100 games at Tiger Stadium.Sam Connon is a Staff Writer for Fastball on the Sports Illustrated/FanNation networks.