A rare, late season clash of Cy Young favorites takes place Tuesday night at Guaranteed Rate Field when Houston Astros ace Justin Verlander takes on White Bulls righty Dylan Cease
Verlander's 1.85 mark is better than Cease's 1.96 and the two pitchers rank first and second in the league. Since 1969 MLB has lowered the mound to a minimum of 20 starts for starting pitchers who have a sub-2.00 ERA.
The Astros manager said it was like when he was a kid. Sandy and Juan Marichal are two of the many people who have been associated with the baseball team. I'm going to have to be careful, because if I were at home, I'd get myself a bowl of popcorn and some beer, and the only time I'd leave was if there was a commercial. That is a great one.
Cease has the second shortest odds at plus-275, while Verlander is a minus-175 favorite to win his third Cy Young Award.
The award isn't something that the players are shying away from.
Cease tried not to fixate on it. If I said it wasn't on my mind, I would be lying.
Whoever does better tomorrow is not the winner because there is still so much season left. It's crucial.
Cease has allowed one or fewer earned runs in 14 consecutive starts, the longest such streak since 1913. He has lowered his ERA from 4.26 to 1.96 over that period.
Cease wasn't chosen for the All-Star Game this year, so he's competing for the Cy Young Award.
Verlander said thatCy Young is more important than the All-Star. His stuff is amazing. He seems to have put it all together.
The Astros won the division series in four games and Cease will try to avenge that. In June, Verlander had his worst performance of the year. Seven runs were given up by him.
Verlander said you learn from mistakes. They had a good game against me there.
Verlander is trying to become the oldest pitcher to lead the league in victories and strikeouts. A pitcher older than 33 has never done that. The opponent Tuesday was 10 years old when Verlander made his debut.
He would start at 92 mph and finish at 101. I remember seeing that as a child. It's rare that I'm here and he's doing it.
Cease was asked if he would be able to pitch at that level.
Cease said it was hard to comprehend. If you take care of yourself, you won't have to worry about your velo or anything. It's easier to picture guys like that.
The spotlight from around the baseball world on the game made both pitchers excited.
"I don't think you get a lot of moments like this, where you get two guys having great years, to match up." It is very exciting because things have to align.
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