PHILADELPHIA — Justin Verlander was dripping with water, beer, mustard, ketchup and happiness. Laundry will take care of the liquids and condiments. The joy never will be cleansed.
At the age of 39, in his ninth crack at it and at the end of one of the most improbable, impressive comeback seasons from Tommy John surgery, Verlander finally won a World Series game. And that is why after the Astros exhaled after a nervy 3–2 win over the Phillies in World Series Game 5, the first thing they did was stuff Verlander into a laundry cart, wheel him into the shower room at Citizens Bank Ballpark and salute him with what’s known in the baseball world as a Rookie Shower, the traditional dumping of liquids and foodstuffs on a rookie upon a first win.
“And it feels f—ing amazing,” Verlander said. “Never felt f—ing better!”
He meant the sloppy and chilled feeling from the shower, but it worked well, too, to describe the satisfaction of having finally won a World Series game. He appeared and sounded giddy, even childish, such was the purity of his joy. Verlander had been 0–6 with a 6.07 ERA in eight previous World Series starts.
Richard Burton never won an Oscar. Rory McElroy has never won the Masters. Verlander’s baseball career seemed similarly incomplete. He had done just about everything else in the game: Rookie of the Year, MVP, two-time Cy Young Award winner, pitching Triple Crown winner, three no-hitters, two 20-win seasons, five-time strikeout champion and a World Series champion.
“Everybody in this room,” third baseman Alex Bregman said in the winning clubhouse, “knows how meaningful that one win is. It’s meaningful to all of us, not just him. He’s our staff ace, our leader.”
“It means even more,” fellow pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. said, “because of when he got it done, where he got it done and how he got it done. He had to battle. That made it all the more sweeter.”
Verlander navigated a world of trouble throughout five treacherous innings.
“Navigated?” he said incredulously. He laughed. “ I was just trying to survive out there.”
Verlander has won 260 games in his career, postseason included. This was the only one in which he lasted five innings, the minimum required for a win, while allowing eight baserunners and letting just one score. It was like watching a circus acrobat ride across a tightrope on a unicycle: scary and thrilling at the same time, or also a bit like undergoing Tommy John surgery with almost 3,000 innings on your arm.