Justin Verlander tips his cap to booing Yankees fans after dominant start

If you’re on the receiving end of 6.2 innings of one-run Justin Verlander ball, you’re probably having a bad time; but when you’re Justin Verlander and that one run raises your ERA, you’ve got license to have some fun.

As Yankees fans booed him off the mound with their team down 5-1 Monday afternoon, Verlander pulled a gutsy move:

Verlander, the owner of a now-increased 1.11 ERA, tipped his cap to the booing home crowd at Yankee Stadium as he exited with a final line of 5 hits, 1 run (a solo homer), 0 walks, and 5 strikeouts – we can only assume the booing was out of either fear or respect, right?

But lest we not forget that there’s a backstory to the Verlander-Yankees saga: Verlander threw nine innings of one-run ball against them in the game 1 of the 2017 ALCS, then held them to zero runs in game 6. Then, before 2018 Spring Training, Verlander tweeted out a prediction about the upcoming season:

Verlander is definitely not one to be coy, and it might be early, but get ready for this feud to rise again in October.