Mickey Lolich for 19th place on the all-time strikeouts list. Verlander was named to the American League All-Star team for the eighth time in his career. At the time of the selection, Verlander had a 10–3 record, 2.86 ERA, 147 strikeouts, and an MLB-leading 0.794 WHIP. Verlander was selected as the starting pitcher for the All-Star game for the second time in his career on July 9. He pitched one inning and retired all three batters he faced, two on strikeouts. Verlander surpassed 200 strikeouts for the season on August 4, for the ninth time in his career. He joined Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, Tom Seaver, Pedro Martinez, and Bob Gibson as the only pitchers with nine or more seasons of 200+ strikeouts. On August 16, Verlander struck out 11 batters against the Oakland A's. It was his sixth consecutive start with 10+ strikeouts, setting an Astros franchise record and becoming the first pitcher to achieve this since Max Scherzer and Chris Sale in 2017. In combination with his prior start against the Baltimore Orioles on August 11, Verlander now has more strikeouts than innings pitched in his career. On August 21, Verlander lost to the Detroit Tigers, 2–1, despite allowing no walks and only two hits, both of them solo home runs, over nine innings. He is the only pitcher other than Mike Mussina in 1998 known to have pitched a complete game loss without ever throwing a pitch with a runner on base. Verlander also had 11 strikeouts in the game, the seventh straight game in which he recorded double-digit strikeouts. On September 1, in a road game against the Toronto Blue Jays, Verlander threw his third career no-hitter. He allowed one base-runner, a walk to Cavan Biggio in the first inning, and struck out 14 batters. The Astros' only runs came on a two-run home run by Abraham Toro in the top of the ninth inning. This was Verlander's second career no-hitter against the Blue Jays making him just the third pitcher of the modern era to no-hit the same team twice, and the first to pitch both no-hitters against the same team on the road. He is the sixth pitcher ever to throw three or more no-hitters in their career. He continued his dominance into his next start, setting an Astros franchise record on September 7 for consecutive batters retired in a row, at