Mickey Togs

Justin Verlander was traded by the New York Mets. The club sent the ace starter back to his former team, the Houston Astros, in exchange for two outfield prospects. The next day, Verlander sent a classy message to Mets fans after the trade.

“Thank you to the Mets and the incredible fans for my time here in NY. You welcomed me and my family with open arms and I can’t thank you  enough for the opportunity to play for this amazing city,” Verlander wrote.

Verlander, 40, signed a two-year, $86 million contract with the Mets this past offseason. The three-time Cy Young award winner pitched to a 3.15 ERA and was worth 2.1 Wins Above Replacement in the first half, which represented his only time with New York.

The Mets, in fourth place in the National League East, underachieved massively after an offseason of spending and high expectations following a 101-win 2022 season.

Luis Severino had another disastrous outing, giving up six runs before recording an out and never giving the Yankees a chance as they fell to the Orioles, 9-3, to drop the series on Sunday night at Camden Yards.

“Right now, I feel like I am the worst pitcher in the game, no doubt about it,” said Severino, who gave up a career-high nine earned runs  across 4 innings and now owns a 7.49 ERA through 12 starts.

Coming off the kind of game they believed they were capable of playing more of on Saturday night, an 8-3 win, the Yankees (55-50) returned to playing the kind of game that has left them in last place in  the AL East. 

The first-place Orioles (64-41), meanwhile, continued to look the part and dealt the Yankees a series loss on a weekend when Aaron Judge returned from the injured list in encouraging fashion but was given a breather for Sunday’s finale to properly build up his workload.

With the Blue Jays losing earlier in the day, the Yankees missed a chance to make up ground in the AL wild-card standings, remaining 3 games back of the final playoff spot.

Justin Verlander earned his 250th career victory as the New York Mets beat the Washington Nationals 5-2 on Sunday after trading Max Scherzer to Texas.

Francisco Lindor homered and had three hits for the fourth-place Mets (50-55), who took three of four from last-place Washington. Pete Alonso drove in two runs.

Verlander (6-5) allowed one run in 6 innings to become the 49th major league pitcher to reach 250 wins.

Alonso had an RBI single and lifted one of New York’s two sacrifice flies in a three-run third against former teammate Trevor Williams (5-6).

Lindor homered in consecutive games for the fourth time this year. He reached base four times. Jeff McNeil hit a go-ahead triple and Omar Narváez also had a sacrifice fly in the third.

Making his 498th career start, Verlander gave up five hits in his third straight win. He walked off the mound to a nice ovation and tipped his cap to the crowd of 33,861 before accepting handshakes from teammates in the dugout.

The Mets signed Verlander to an $86.7 million, two-year contract in December shortly after Jacob deGrom signed a $185 million, five-year deal with Texas. That reunited Verlander and Scherzer, a pair of three-time Cy Young Award winners who were teammates in Detroit from 2010-14.