Verlander Rehabs with CC, Frisco Takes Series

Box Score

FRISCO - Astros right-hander Justin Verlander threw 77 pitches over four innings in a rehab start with the Hooks Saturday night. Frisco won the contest, 10-3, before a crowd of 11,622 at Riders Field.

Verlander, working his way back from a sore right shoulder, kept the RoughRiders off the board over the first two innings. The 18-year Major League veteran was aided by an assist from right-fielder Rolando Espinosa in the opening frame.

Frisco, helped by two Corpus Christi errors, sent 11 men to bat in a six-run third, requiring 42 pitches from Verlander. The Riders recorded five hits in the rally, including RBI doubles by Abimelec Ortiz and Frainyer Chavez. The Chavez two-bagger was a flare down the left field line that exited with a velocity of 88 miles per hour.

Verlander, who struck out three and walked one, retired five in a row to finish his outing. The two-time World Series champion is the third Cy Young Award winner to pitch for the Hooks over their 19 seasons, joining lefty Dallas Keuchel and Roger Clemens.

Michael Knorr entered in the fifth and allowed the first two to reach via a walk and a single. Two strikeouts later, Cody Freeman's fly ball found the grass down the right-field line for a two-run double and an 8-1 Frisco lead.

Knorr rebounded by retiring seven of the next nine hitters, but a Chavez base hit and Aaron Zavala's opposite-field home run that just snuck over the fence in left greeted him to start the eighth.

The Hooks were held to three hits for a second consecutive game. The first knock was a single by Miguel Palma with one away in the seventh. With two outs in the frame, C.J. Stubbs blasted a 422-foot bomb to left field for a two-run home run, his first long ball of the season.