Justin Verlander won his 2 Cy Young Awards 8 years apart. I wonder if that is close to a record. I gave more points for the Cy Young Award starting in 2006. Verlander probably benefits the most. I was wrong Kerhaw does. I have Kershaw as the 32nd best pitcher. Verlander also won an MVP award, which is very difficult for a pitcher these days. I probably would have voted for him that year (2011) also.
It is interesting in the post season with Verlander. Detroit was a contender a few years when Verlander pitched there, practically from 2011 to 2014. Overall, in his career he pitched in 8 post seasons. He has appeared in 4 World Series. The thing is he pitches at different levels in each series. In the Division Series he is 8-1 with an ERA of 2.52. Basically, he pitches like he is in his Cy Young years. In the Championship Series he is 6-4 with an ERA of 3.13. It is like the solid seasons Verlander has. In the World Series he is 0-6 with a ERA of 5.68. This is not good. Most games is giving a very good performance than he gets a lot of hits against him and can’t get out of the inning. It comes out of no where and the manager probably isn’t expecting it either and they have to get a reliever in there. The one bad outing was the first game against San Francisco in the 2012 World Series. I thought Detroit was going to win the World Series that year, but when Pedro Sandoval hit the first home run off of Justin Verlander, I thought the Giants are going to win now. I don’t why I got the feeling, then but the Giants swept the series.
Verlander has one no decision in World Series play. It was the one World Series his team won in 2017. Houston won that game, so he did help them in the World Series. Actually, he pitched well in both games of that World Series just not good enough for a win. However, he is an easy hall of famer.
