Justin Verlander's 2022 regular season is over. The Houston Astros star wrapped up a massively impressive season coming off of Tommy John surgery.

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Verlander's historic campaign has him well in front of the Cy Young Award race. He wrapped up his season with 10 strikeouts and no runs allowed in five innings. According to Brian McTaggart of MLB.com, Verlander compared the last few starts of his 2022 season to “Secretariat” to illustrate how he wanted to instill the mindset of finishing strong.

“The last few starts, it was like the Secretariat movie, when he’s coming around the last turn,” Justin Verlander said, via MLB.com. “He’s having a great race and the trainer is like, ‘Just don’t fall off!’ That’s how I felt. I had to keep reminding myself, ‘Just finish strong. Let’s not try to limp home for any particular reason, because I want to finish with whatever flashy numbers there are.’ Kind of go back out there and pitch to what got you here, which is go out there and win baseball games, keep your guys in the game and don’t try to do too much.”

Justin Verlander's case to be the American League Cy Young winner is clear, especially as he continued to dominate down the stretch of the season. In 175.0 innings of work, he has a 1.75 ERA, a 0.829 WHIP, 185 strikeouts and has allowed just 6.0 hits per nine innings. He also has a league-leading 18 wins and win-loss percentage of 81.8. The scary part for the Astros' playoff opponents is that he headlines arguably the best pitching staff in all of baseball.

Justin Verlander also said after his final 2022 regular-season start that he is focused solely on the playoffs and not individual accolades. Houston is the top dog in the AL and has a strong chance to make it to the World Series.