Justin Verlander threw eight innings of no-run baseball against the Seattle Mariners on Monday night when the Astros desperately needed it. This is why Houston re-acquired their former ace at the MLB trade deadline and gave up a top-100 prospect to boot. When at his best, Verlander can still bring it.

Verlander is over 40 years old at this point in his like Hall of Fame career, but he looked like vintage JV on Monday. With the victory, Houston is now 1.5 games ahead of the Seattle Mariners for the final AL Wild Card spot. There's still plenty of work left to do, of course, as there are two games remaining in Seattle on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Houston Astros: Justin Verlander rallies the troops

Verlander did his best to rally the troops on Monday night following his masterful performance. Knowing full well there's plenty of work left, JV dropped the mic.

"Here we are with our destiny still in our hands, ultimately that's where you want to be," Verlander said. "You would like to be able to win the division. That's still not out of the realm of possibility, but I know this team -- as you've seen when we went to Texas [in early September], and hopefully today and the remainder of this series -- when it's time to turn it on, we know how to play that type of baseball, and we do it really well. No matter what, if we get there, I love these guys and I love our chances, and we'll see what happens."

JV will make one more start this regular season against the Arizona Diamondbacks -- another potential postseason team. Houston's schedule does not let up, but the defending champs are used to playing with their backs up against the wall. 2023 is just another year to them.