Justin Verlander will be seeking to end a career-worst winless streak to open a season when he faces one of his favorite opponents, the Athletics, as the host San Francisco Giants go for a three-game sweep in the interleague series Sunday afternoon.
The Giants have used different means, but the same hero, to take the first two rivalry contests, riding the run production of Wilmer Flores. He followed up a three-homer game on Friday with a walk-off walk in Saturday’s 1-0 victory in 10 innings.
San Francisco has scored 10 runs in the series; Flores has driven in nine of them.
Verlander (0-3, 4.31 ERA) would love to see more of it when he encounters the A’s representing West Sacramento for the first time after tormenting their Oakland fan base for years.
The 42-year-old, pitching then for the Detroit Tigers, helped eliminate the A’s in the 2006, 2012 and 2013 postseasons with four wins in five games. His record is 4-0 with a 1.24 ERA and 49 strikeouts in 36 1/3 innings.
He’s also performed well against the A’s in the regular season, going 17-8 with a 2.60 ERA in 29 starts.
The right-hander will take the mound, as he has done nine times previously this season, searching for career win No. 263. The longest winless streak of his career to start a season had been seven while with the Tigers in 2015. He was 0-3 before posting a win in his eighth start that season.
Verlander has four quality starts on the season and has pitched with some bad luck, including in his past two starts.
He left with a 5-3 lead after five innings on the road May 6 against the Cubs, only to see Chicago rally to tie before the Giants eventually prevailed 14-5. Because of the late tie, Verlander was not credited with the win.
The three-time Cy Young Award winner responded with another potential winning effort Monday at home against the Arizona Diamondbacks, allowing just two runs in six innings. But this time, the Giants supported him with just one and he was hung with the loss.
He also has a 2-0 loss to the Texas Rangers on April 25 on his record.
In his most recent game, Verlander was unhappy about Edwin Jimenez’s strike zone in the game, but didn’t blame the ump. Instead, he accused Major League Baseball of not communicating a decision to lower the top of the strike zone by two inches this season.
“The league said they notified everybody,” Verlander insisted, “and everybody said, ‘We never heard anything.’ They (say they) talked to all the people that were supposed to be notified, and none of them had heard anything. So somebody’s lying.”
Verlander is scheduled to go head-to-head with A’s left-hander Jeffrey Springs (5-3, 4.27) on Sunday.
The 32-year-old Springs has faced the Giants just once previously in his career, throwing two innings of shutout ball as a rookie for the Texas Rangers in 2018. He didn’t figure into the decision.
The A’s have lost four in a row. Their most recent win came with Springs on the mound in an 11-1 romp in Los Angeles against the Dodgers on Tuesday.
He’s allowed just three runs over 18 innings in his past three starts.
While appreciative of the rare road support in the first two games of the series, A’s shortstop Jacob Wilson encourages even more longtime fans to help try to produce a series-ending win.
“Hopefully we get a lot of the old fans that come back and drive over the bridge,” he announced. “Just come out and enjoy it.”
– Field Level Media
