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Rockies Young Pitcher Had a Devastating Burn About Justin Verlander’s Age

Their MLB debuts will be seperated by literal decades.

Stephen Douglas

Chase Dollander made his Cactus League debut against Justin Verlander.
Chase Dollander made his Cactus League debut against Justin Verlander. / @PatrickDLyon
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Chase Dollander, a 23-year old pitcher, made his Cactus League debut for the Colorado Rockies on Monday against the San Francisco Giants. The other starting pitcher in the game was Justin Verlander, who just turned 42 last week.

Dollander was asked what it was like pitching against Verlander and had a funny, but completely true response about their age difference.

"That was awesome. Someboy told me he debuted in 2005," said Dollander. "I was four years-old at the time so that's pretty cool to be able to do that. Yeah, had a lot of fun."

To be completely accurate, Dollander would have actually only been three and a half when Verlander made his MLB debut on July 4, 2005.

On Monday Verlander, who is on a one-year, $15 million deal, gave up one run on one hit in two innings. Dollander, who will still have to be pitching in the 2040s if he wants to catch Verlander on MLB's all-time wins list, gave up one run and two hits in two innings and struck out three batters.

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Stephen Douglas
STEPHEN DOUGLAS

Stephen Douglas is a senior writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has worked in media since 2008 and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Douglas spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and previously wrote for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.

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