32. Teammate Ryan Pressly tied this record in 2022. On September 28, in his final start of the 2019 regular season, Verlander struck out Kole Calhoun in the bottom of the 4th inning against the Los Angeles Angels for his 3,000th career strikeout becoming the 18th pitcher in history to strike out 3,000 hitters. Verlander struck Calhoun out again in the bottom of the 6th for his 300th strikeout of the season, a new career-high, becoming the second player in Major League history after Randy Johnson to achieve his first 300 strikeout season in the same game as recording a 3,000th career strikeout. Verlander and teammate Gerrit Cole became the first pair of starting pitchers to strike out 300+ hitters in the same season since Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling achieved the feat in 2002 for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Verlander finished the 2019 season 21–6 with 300 strikeouts and a 2.58 ERA in 223 innings pitched. He finished first in MLB in innings pitched and games started for the fourth time in his career, first in wins for the third time in his career, and first in WHIP for the third time in his career. His 0.803 WHIP was the lowest in a major league season since Pedro Martínez posted a 0.737 WHIP in 2000. Verlander also led the American League with a 7.14 strikeouts-to-walks ratio. He was also first in MLB in WAR for pitchers (7.8) and lowest hits per nine innings (5.529). Batters hit .171 against him, the lowest average in the major leagues, and his left on-base percentage of 88.4% was also best in the majors. He allowed the highest fly ball percentage of all major league pitchers (45.2%), which contributed to a career-high 36 home runs allowed. During the top of the second inning of game 2 of the 2019 World Series, Verlander recorded the 200th postseason strikeout of his career setting a new major league record and surpassing the previous record of 199 set by John Smoltz. He finished the game with six strikeouts, seven hits and four earned runs in six innings in a 12–3 loss to the Washington Nationals. With the loss, he became the first pitcher in major league history to lose his first five World Series decisions. On November 12, 2019, Verlander won his second Cy Young Award, receiving 171 points and 17 of 30 first-place votes to top teammate Gerrit