Two of Major League Baseball’s active legends will occupy opposing dugouts Friday night when Bruce Bochy and the Texas Rangers visit Justin Verlander and the San Francisco Giants in the opener of a three-game interleague series.
Bochy, who led the Giants to World Series championships in 2010, 2012 and 2014, will be making his second return to San Francisco since winning 1,052 regular-season games as their manager for 13 seasons.
Four years after he “retired” in 2019, Bochy led the Rangers to two wins in three games in his initial San Francisco homecoming in 2023 in a season that culminated in Texas winning its first ever World Series.
The title was Bochy’s fourth, making him just the sixth in MLB history with four managerial rings. He joined Joe McCarthy (seven), Casey Stengel (seven), Connie Mack (five), Walter Alston (four) and Joe Torre (four) in the exclusive club.
The Rangers didn’t visit San Francisco last season, but the Giants exacted a bit of revenge on their former boss with two wins in three meetings in Arlington, Texas, in June.
This reunion will be special for another reason. The Giants have scheduled a ceremony for longtime shortstop Brandon Crawford on Saturday, an event Bochy feels honored to have the privilege of attending.
“I’m really happy that we’ll be there,” noted the man who was Crawford’s manager for nine of his 13 seasons with the Giants. “It’s going to be pretty cool that I’ll get to see the fans acknowledge (him) and thank him for what he did. I appreciate the timing of this.”
When Bochy steps onto the Oracle Park field one night earlier, he’ll see an unfamiliar face in a Giants uniform — Verlander (0-1, 5.47 ERA), who was signed as a free agent in the offseason.
The 42-year-old is 21-8 against the Rangers with a 2.60 ERA in 35 lifetime starts.
The right-hander, now in his 20th season, has pitched in some tough luck for his fourth career team. He pitched well in a 3-2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds in his Giants debut on March 29, twice didn’t hang around long enough to record a win in high-scoring victories, and lost a mid-game lead in a road defeat against the Philadelphia Philies.
Then, in his most recent start last Sunday against the Los Angeles Angels, he watched career win No. 263 be snatched from his grasp when Giants closer Ryan Walker served up a bases-clearing, walk-off double in a 5-4 defeat.
Verlander is slated to be opposed by Rangers right-hander Nathan Eovaldi (1-2, 2.64), who will be seeing the Giants for a ninth time in his career. He’s gone 3-4 with a 9.45 ERA in his previous eight starts.
Both teams will begin the set one day after experiencing extreme emotions in their series finales. Hours before the Rangers got walked off in a 4-3 loss to the Athletics in West Sacramento, Calif., the Giants scored the final four runs of a 6-5 home win over the Milwaukee Brewers.
“It’s kinda what this team has been about to this point,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said of the narrow win. “We feel like when we get close, we have a real good chance to win.”
-Field Level Media
