SAN FRANCISCO — Father Time is undefeated for just about every professional athlete not named Tom Brady.
And while the 42-year-old Justin Verlander has pitched quite well throughout the twilight years of his illustrious MLB career, time is running out to secure one major milestone.
Now in his 20th season, Verlander (262 wins) sits 38 victories away from reaching the exclusive 24-player 300-win club. After signing a one-year contract with the Giants this offseason, Verlander got off to a slow start this season but has excelled in his last three outings, surrendering two or fewer runs over six-plus innings in his last three starts.
Verlander was in line for his first win in a Giants uniform on April 20 after tossing six innings of one-run ball against the Los Angeles Angels before San Francisco’s bullpen blew a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the ninth. He followed up his strong start with a similar outing against the Texas Rangers on April 25 where he, again, allowed one run in six innings of work but received zero runs of support in a 2-0 loss.
That familiar trend continued in the Giants’ 4-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies on Thursday night at Oracle Park, where Verlander (ND, 6 1/3 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, BB, 4 K) once again pitched very well, only for his bullpen to once again blow his opportunity for that first win in Orange and Black.
“I really try and take a long view of this game, it’s really hard when you focus on a small sample size, so I’ve just got to keep trying to pitch well and hopefully a win will come,” Verlander said postgame.
“Look, of course we want to get him his first win, but it’s more importantly just winning the game period,” Giants manager Bob Melvin added. “No matter how you do it. But he pitched well enough to win, he’s done that probably a couple times now, so unfortunately hasn’t gotten that win yet. We’d like to get him one, but a team loss is a team loss.”
Verlander departed with one out in the top of the seventh inning after surrendering a solo home run to Rockies third baseman Ryan McMahon that cut San Francisco’s lead to 3-2.
When Melvin walked out to the mound to pull Verlander, the two had a brief chat that initially appeared to be the veteran righty pleading his case to remain in the game.
That, as the self-aware Verlander revealed after the game, was not the case.
“I just asked him if he took me out because I’m old,” Verlander said with a chuckle postgame.
In fact, Verlander understood his manager’s decision and even admitted that he was not properly prepared to be stretched out for another frame after the Giants’ offense sent seven batters to the plate in a two-run bottom of the sixth.
“The long inning, I might need to make some adjustments here with the cold weather, throw a little bit if we have a long inning like that,” Verlander said. “Kind of had a little difficulty getting loose, so went back out there and didn’t have my best stuff. So live and learn.
“Looking up and my first fastball is 92 [mph] instead of [93-94]. It just wasn’t quite moving as well, gave up a homer. So that’s something I need to make an adjustment to.”
Verlander added that he has no issues pitching in the cold weather, but simply felt he needs to do a better job of staying loose in between long innings.
Despite his mid-inning departure, Verlander still was in line for the win after right-handed reliever Camilo Doval retired the next two batters in the seventh.
However, it was Tyler Rogers, one of the Giants’ most reliable bullpen arms and one of the best relief pitchers in baseball, who spoiled Verlander’s shot at his first win with San Francisco after surrendering two runs in the top of the eighth inning, giving Colorado the 4-3 lead that the Giants’ offense was unable to overcome.
“It kind of stinks to mess up the win for JV, he’s still searching for that first win as a Giant and he’s chasing down a lot of wins,” Rogers shared.
“He’s probably going to the Hall of Fame [regardless of] what we do for him or not. I think that will be something to think about when he does go into the Hall of Fame, like ‘Oh, I was a teammate with him.’ Hopefully we can help him out some more, but to take away a win from any starting pitcher doesn’t feel good. It doesn’t matter if it’s his first or 300th or whatever.”
While a win, and 37 more, certainly would be nice, Verlander just wants to do his part to help the Giants, as a team, notch victories. Regardless of which pitcher has the “W” next to their name in the box score.
“You want to do your part, but also I think you try and look at it like you give your team a chance and if you give your team enough chances the wins will start coming, you go deeper in games, keep a lot of runs off the board,” Verlander added. “Those things just kind of fall in line and start happening.
“We’re sitting here talking about it, it’s just been unfortunate, our bullpen’s been phenomenal all season. Unfortunately, just a couple starts for me, but that’s baseball. You can’t sit here and be like ‘woe is me,’ you’ve got a bunch of teammates and you’ve got to trust each other. And we do.”
That first win in a Giants uniform will come. So will others. Will he notch enough in 2025 and beyond to join the exclusive club? That remains to be seen.
However, if one thing is certain, it’s that Verlander will do everything in his power to put his team in the best position to win. And if he’s successful in doing so, he more often than not will be awarded accordingly.
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