Justin Verlander just experienced his first real hiccup in an otherwise dominant season. He allowed all six runs in the Houston Astros' loss to the Seattle Mariners after three consecutive performances of holding the opposition scoreless.

The Mariners took Verlander deep four times in six innings. Julio Rodriguez and Kyle Lewis each hit a two-run home run in the first inning while Ty France and Taylor Trammell also went yard. Prior to this start, Verlander had allowed only three home runs all season. The Astros only scored a single run.

The Astros' ace knows what went wrong. According to Brian McTaggart of MLB.com, Verlander said that he failed to find a rhythm against a hit-hungry Mariners lineup.

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“It would have been nice to get in a rhythm, but I never felt like I did,” Verlander explained. “A lot of credit to those guys. They had a good game plan and kind of kept me off balance all night and was never able to get into a good rhythm. I had one kind of quick inning [in the third], but other than that it was a bit of a struggle.”

Even with such a poor performance, Verlander is having a brilliant season as he returns from Tommy John surgery. He leads the majors in WHIP with 0.832 along with an ERA of 2.03 and 55 strikeouts in 57.2 innings. The 39-year-old is a huge reason why the Astros are thriving so far this season.

Verlander's ability to thrive at such an old age is astonishing. After his first slip, he has some work to do in order to maintain his unbelievable level of play.