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Leave it to the baseball gods to cleverly disguise the most meaningful New York Mets game of Justin Verlander’s career. Taking place 1,648.6 miles away from Citi Field, Verlander is scheduled to pitch for the Houston Astros against the Arizona Diamondbacks. A win in Flushing for the Mets and another loss for the Diamondbacks in Houston will push Verlander’s ex-club ahead of Arizona.
Credit Vito Calise, the man who caught Grimace’s first pitch, for sharing the plan laid out by the universe on Sunday.
Tomorrow’s Astros-DBacks game is Justin Verlander’s most meaningful game for the Mets during the entire span of time he’s been paid by them.
— Vito Calise (@VitoFCalise) September 8, 2024
The biggest game of Justin Verlander’s Mets career takes place on Sunday
This wasn’t what Billy Eppler had planned all along. He didn’t sign Verlander then traded him away with schemes of placing a double agent in the American League to take down a National League ball club who’d 13+ months later conveniently be ahead of the Mets in the Wild Card standings. He was just a guy looking to flush the roster and add to the farm system.
Verlander has been hit hard this season, going 3-5 with a 4.52 ERA in 13 starts. It’s the innings we’ve cared about most. Now at 71.2, 140 were needed in order for his $35 million deal for 2025 to vest. There aren’t nearly enough games left for Verlander to double his innings total. Fans weren’t shy about pointing this out among other reasons why Verlander should have a Mets shirt under his Astros jersey on Sunday.
And with no chance of his option vesting, we can root for him to go deep too!
— the__ralstar (@the__ralstar) September 8, 2024
He shouldn't forget who's paying half that contract
— Jack.Cohen5 (@metsfsndw5) September 8, 2024
Not everyone is so sure about Verlander getting the job done.
He's going to screw us again...
— Smitty22 (@stevie_g_smith) September 8, 2024
The Diamondbacks are bound to win more games just as the Mets are destined to lose some—although the latter feels increasingly impossible with each day. Nine wins in a row? At this stage of the season? If you’re not feeling some sense of optimism, you’ve been a Mets fan too long.
As suggested by Alyssa Rose, daughter of Howie, first of her name, we’re either in a fairy tale or the final act of a horror film where we think the bad guys are all gone.
The Mets have officially reached the point where this will either be a fairy tale ending or a horror film
— Alyssa Rose (@AlyssaRose) September 8, 2024
Let’s hope if it’s the latter there’s an Al Powell to help save the day with one final gunshot.