San Francisco Giants pitcher Justin Verlander works against the Texas Rangers during the first inning of a baseball game in San Francisco, Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Jeff Chiu/Associated Press
Justin Verlander does not yet have a win with the San Francisco Giants, but for the second outing in a row, he did enough to claim one.
Verlander went six innings and allowed two runs Friday night, but the Giants’ lineup got just one man past first base in his six innings, and that was via a wild pitch. Texas starter Nathan Eovaldi, himself light in run support this season, struck out seven in his six innings of work and the Rangers topped San Francisco 2-0 with little fuss.
San Francisco has a cheery 17-10 record, but four of those losses have been shutouts and the Giants’ .310 on-base percentage is 17th in the majors, their .228 average is 22nd. Their frustrations Friday included a bad call against Jung Hoo Lee, their top hitter, leading off the ninth; an inside pitch hit Lee’s bat as he swung at it and went foul, but Austin Jones, umpiring behind the plate at Oracle Park for the first time, called it a strikeout even after a huddle with the rest of the umpires.
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It was Lee’s second odd interaction with an umpire in two weeks after Phil Cuzzi accused Lee of trying to signal for an ABS challenge in Philadelphia. Manager Bob Melvin said he thought Lee was trying to get out of the way of the pitch rather than swinging and noted that foul balls don’t fall under replay review; Lee, with Justin Han interpreting, said he was trying to avoid the pitch but did swing and it hit his bat, leaving him baffled about why it was strike three. Jones thought it hit Lee’s hand, but Lee said if that had been the case, “I would have been on the floor not being OK.”
Lee then went into detail about how each at-bat is important, especially in the ninth, and how badly he’d wanted to reach base.
“I just don’t understand why that call was made,” Lee said. “If there was a replay that could have happened, I think it would have been nice, but what the umpires kept on saying was I went for the swing and then it hit my hand. ‘That’s why we can’t review it, because the strikeout call was already made, we can’t make a call for a foul. So I don’t know where the basic standard would be for an umpire right now.”
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Verlander’s last time out, Sunday at Anaheim, he was in line for his first victory when Ryan Walker blew his first save of the season. Verlander’s allowed seven hits, three walks and three runs over his past 12 innings and struck out 11. “I think Verlander is just being Verlander right now,” Lee said.
“Going in the right direction,” said Verlander, who added that he’s still trying to clean some things up out of the stretch in particular.
Texas clearly had a plan for Verlander: swinging at the first pitch. The first hit he allowed, Jake Burger’s leadoff double in the third, was on a first-pitch slider; he advanced on a groundout and scored when Wyatt Langford doubled on another first-pitch slider.
He was onto the Rangers’ approach from there and retired the next seven batters he faced, and the next score came thanks to some balls off infielders’ gloves. Josh Smith, leading off the sixth, hit a bouncer that ticked off Willy Adames’ glove at shortstop and initially was ruled an error. Then, after a ground-rule double by Langford, and with the infield in, Joc Pederson’s roller went off Tyler Fitzgerald’s glove and sent in Smith. Verlander got Marcus Semien to hit into a double play to end it.
The Giants had their final shot to give Verlander a W in the bottom of the sixth, but Eovaldi struck out Adames, Lee and Matt Chapman.
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Randy Rodriguez worked two innings and extended his scoreless appearance streak to 11 this season, helped by a strikeout-double play, with Patrick Bailey nailing Josh Jung at second. It took replay review to get the call right, ending the seventh.
Rodriguez’s 11 scoreless outings are the most by a Giants pitcher to start the season since 1901 and one of 16 in big-league history to do so; Baltimore’s Yennier Cano was the most recent, with a 17-game streak in 2023.
Walker, trying to iron out a wonky slider, worked the ninth. Melvin has said that Walker and Camilo Doval will be sharing the closer role depending on usage; the spot Walker appeared in Friday was more about giving him a shot to get right in a game situation.
“That was big for him,” Melvin said. “He pitched really well, had command of his fastball, got a bad swing on a slider. Whenever you have a couple of tough outings, it’s nice to have one where you go out there with a little less pressure and throw the ball like you’re capable.”
Before the game, Walker said his stride length was off slightly and he was working to address it. Friday night, he worked a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts, one coming on his slider.
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On a chilly evening at Oracle Park, a number of well-hit balls died right at the wall in left center, despite a breeze blowing out that direction. The most painful of those, for San Francisco, was Adames’ blast in the first, which looked and sounded like a homer off the bat. The team needs to get Adames, the No. 2 hitter, going. The team’s major offseason addition is batting .204 with one home run.
Every matchup with Texas comes with a Bruce Bochy undercurrent. Bochy, who won three rings as the Giants’ manager and another with the Rangers, said before Friday’s game that he’s grateful to be in town for Brandon Crawford Day honoring his former shortstop. He said he texts president of baseball operations Buster Posey now and then, sometimes about fishing, and the two caught up behind the batting cage before the game.
