Verlander flashes vintage form, misses out on first Giants W

ANAHEIM – It was only the bottom of the fourth inning, but Justin Verlander knew how important it was to get out of this jam.

He had given up a leadoff double to Angels left fielder Taylor Ward, and loaded the bases on a couple of walks to Mike Trout and Nolan Schanuel. The wheels were in danger of falling off, much like they had in the sixth inning of his previous start in Philadelphia.

But after falling behind 2-0 to Logan O’Hoppe, Verlander battled back to even the count before getting him to whiff on a sweeper up and on the outer edge of the plate and emerge from the inning unscathed.

“It’s one of those situations where [Angels starter] Yusei [Kikuchi] was pitching well,” Verlander said. “You got the bases loaded and even though it’s the fourth inning, you know the game’s on the line right there. So it felt great to get out of that.”

And for a while, it looked as if the outcome of the game would be determined by that fourth frame. That was, of course, before the Giants blew a three-run lead in the bottom of the ninth and lost 5-4 to the Angels in walk-off fashion.

But after Verlander worked himself out of that jam to keep the scoreless deadlock going, the Giants' offense broke through in the top of the fifth. Heliot Ramos, who had hit a leadoff double of his own and advanced to third on a throwing error from Angels center fielder Jo Adell, scored on an RBI single from Willy Adames.

Then in the top of the sixth, catcher Sam Huff put a big swing on a hanging changeup for a two-run homer to put the Giants up 3-1.

“We left some guys out there on base this series, or at least this game where we could’ve added on some more,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said. “But I thought our bats were pretty good across the board. Just gave up too many runs at the end.”

In Verlander’s sixth and final inning, he struck out Mike Trout on a 97.4 mph fastball – his fastest strikeout pitch by a full tick since the start of 2023.

“I think that was huge for him,” Melvin said about the three-time Cy Young winner. “He’s had one bad inning each outing, and got through that one [in the fourth]. Got us through six. Pitched great.”

Verlander went six full innings on 98 pitches – his longest outing of the season – with one earned run allowed on two hits with two walks and six strikeouts. A blown save in the bottom of the ninth further delayed his first win as a Giant, but it was still Verlander’s best outing with San Francisco so far.

He entered the series finale in Anaheim 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA through his first four starts. He leaves Sunday with a 5.47 ERA.

Verlander got 12 swings and misses, nine of them on his fastball. But his sweeper, which he only threw 14 times on Sunday, had a whiff rate of 50%. His velocity on that pitch Sunday reached 80 mph, almost a full mph higher than his average.

Verlander, now in his 20th season, has been open about chasing his 300th win. With five starts now in the books, he’s still at that 262 mark that he started the season on. He did everything right on Sunday. But, that’s just baseball sometimes.

“I felt better about it,” Verlander said. “Feel like I’ve been trending in the right direction. It was nice to give us a better chance to win today.”