WEST SACRAMENTO – The Justin Verlander saga added another disappointing chapter on the 4th of July, as the Athletics hammered the nine-time All-Star for a season-high six runs en route to an 11-2 blowout over the Giants on Friday night at Sutter Health Park.
Verlander gave up seven hits and had five strikeouts, while his ERA rose from 4.26 to 4.84. It all happened on the 20th anniversary of Verlander’s MLB debut.
Already viewed as one of the premier pitchers of his era, Verlander is making history for all the wrong reasons now. At 0-5, he’s off to the worst start of his 20-year MLB career and hasn’t won since Sept. 28, 2024, when he was still pitching with the Houston Astros.
After giving up a run in the first inning Verlander was tagged for four runs and four doubles in the second inning when the A’s extended their lead to 5-0.
The Giants weren’t expecting Verlander to be the dominant pitcher he had been previously but they certainly didn’t expect to go into July still waiting for the three-time Cy Young Award winner to get his first win with the Orange and Black.
Verlander began the game much more aggressively than he has been, throwing first-pitch strikes to seven of the first 11 batters he faced. The problem was that Verlander kept throwing the ball in the zone and the A’s were able to square him up and had several hard-hit balls in the first two innings, including four doubles and five runs.
Verlander threw 60 pitches in his brief night of work, 45 for strikes.
The Giants didn’t do much at the plate, either.
In what has been a season-long story, the Giants offense was mostly muted with Verlander on the mound.
Brett Wisely homered for San Francisco. Rafael Devers, Luis Matos and Dom Smith each doubled.
Instead of capitalizing on the momentum they built the last two days in Arizona, the Giants lost for the first time in four games this season against their former Bay Area rivals in front of the Athletics’ largest crowd at Sutter Health Park – 12,322.
Looking ahead, the Giants will have ace Logan Webb pitching on Saturday in what is a welcome-home game for the Rocklin native.
Here are the takeaways from a loss that drops the Giants to 47-42:
No support, no surprise
Verlander got Cain’d again.
All season long the Giants have failed to back the nine-time All-Star with much offense – 26 runs over his previous 13 starts, third-fewest in the National League – and Friday was no different.
A’s starter JP Sears, a solid but not necessarily an overwhelming pitcher, carried a perfect game into the fourth inning before Heliot Ramos drew a leadoff walk. Willy Adames followed with a single to break up the no-hit bid.
Things got really bad for the eyes in the fourth and fifth when the Giants got two on with no outs in both innings and failed to score.
Six of San Francisco’s nine hitters in the starting lineup struck out at least once. Patrick Bailey had a golden sombrero with four Ks.
Not even the small uprising in the ninth was enough to put a positive spin on this one.
Wisely ends shutout bid
Called up from the minors two weeks ago, Wisely helped the Giants avoid being shut out for the ninth time this season when he crushed a 1-0 fastball from A’s reliever for a 415-foot home run, Wisely’s first of the season.
Wisely, who flashed some nifty glove work a night earlier while filling in for injured third baseman Matt Chapman, hasn’t shown a lot of pop in his bat during his first two seasons in the bigs, but with the offense in the extended slump that it is, the Giants will take anything they can get.
San Francisco tacked on a second run when Smith doubled in the ninth and scored on an error.
Been here before
The Giants were the visiting team, although nearly every player on the 26-man roster had previously played at Sutter Health Park either with the Sacramento River Cats – San Francisco’s Triple-A affiliate – on their way to the bigs or made a rehab appearance here.
Eight players alone have played with the River Cats this season, while 20 of the 26 on the roster played here with the River Cats at some point during their career. Assistant hitting coach Damon Minor and bullpen coach Gavrin Alston also worked with the Cats during their careers.
The one person with the least experience at the Sacramento ballpark is manager Bob Melvin, who never coached here while managing the Oakland A’s. He has coached a pair of exhibition games here but none in the regular season.
The Giants’ roots were evident in the crowd, too. Several fans wore bright orange shirts and cheered for the away team.
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