Justin Verlander heads into May still looking for his first win as a member of the San Francisco Giants.
The three-time Cy Young Award winner, just 38 victories shy of joining the 300-win club, will make his seventh start of the 2025 season on Thursday night when the Giants open a four-game series with the visiting Colorado Rockies.
The 42-year-old Verlander (0-2, 4.99 ERA), who signed a one-year, $15 million free-agent contract with San Francisco following an injury-plagued 5-6 campaign with the Houston Astros, has pitched well enough to win his past two starts. He allowed just a combined two earned runs and six hits over 12 innings while striking out 11 against the Los Angeles Angels and Texas Rangers.
Verlander allowed just four hits and one earned run over six innings in his start Friday against the Rangers, but the Giants managed just four hits in a 2-0 loss. Still, Verlander was upbeat by his performance despite being tagged with the defeat.
“It’s definitely encouraging,” the right-hander said. “This game can beat you down in a hurry, so you want to try and focus on positives. It’s harder to do that when the team doesn’t win.”
“Really good,” San Francisco manager Bob Melvin said of Verlander’s start. “Six innings, two runs, walked one, got out of a jam when he needed to with a punch-out and the double play. Typically, that’ll win you a game. We just didn’t do much with their pitching tonight.”
The Giants managed to get only one runner to second base against Nathan Eovaldi and three Texas relievers.
Verlander is 3-1 with a 3.18 ERA in six career starts against Colorado, which enters the contest after a rare victory. Left-hander Kyle Freeland (0-4, 5.93 ERA), who is 8-7 with a 4.19 ERA in 24 career starts against San Francisco, will start for the Rockies.
The Rockies pulled what might best be called a shocker on Thursday afternoon when they defeated the Atlanta Braves and reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale 2-1 in Denver to snap an eight-game losing streak.
It was just the second win in the past 18 games for the Rockies, who are on pace to break the modern record for fewest wins in a season set last season by the Chicago White Sox (41-121). The Rockies are a majors-worst 5-25, tied with the 2003 Detroit Tigers for the second-worst 30-game start in modern MLB history, behind only the 1988 Baltimore Orioles, who went 4-26.
Chase Dollander, the ninth overall selection in the 2023 MLB Draft out of Tennessee who is ranked as Colorado’s top prospect, picked up the win against Atlanta. He allowed one run on two hits and three walks over 5 2/3 innings while striking out four before departing with a cracked middle fingernail.
“Chase is built the right way,” Colorado manager Bud Black said. “This a great confidence-builder — going up against Chris Sale, a Cy Young Award winner. And he basically outdueled him.”
Brenton Doyle snapped an 0-for-20 skid with a 421-foot home run to left-center in the third inning that broke a 1-1 tie and proved to be the game-winner.
“It’s no secret that this past week has been kind of rough for me,” Doyle told The Denver Post. “We definitely needed this win as a team. Sale is a heck of a pitcher, and to get it against him, on a getaway day, going to another series, is a good momentum boost for us.”
–Field Level Media
