SAN FRANCISCO — Justin Verlander pitched well. Nathan Eovaldi pitched better.
Verlander allowed two runs over six innings with six strikeouts but Eovaldi countered with six shutout innings and seven strikeouts as the Giants (17-10) lost to the Texas Rangers, 2-0, in front of a sellout crowd Friday night at Oracle Park.
“Got out pitched tonight,” Verlander said.
Verlander ended up with his second loss in a Giants uniform but recorded back-to-back quality starts in the process. Over his last two outings, the 42-year-old has allowed three earned runs over 12 innings (2.25 ERA) with 11 strikeouts to three walks.
Still, Verlander remains searching for his first win with the orange and black. This marks the seventh time in his career that Verlander has gone at least six starts without a win, the longest winless stretch of his career being seven starts.
“This game can beat you down in a hurry, so you want to try to focus on positives,” Verlander said. “It’s harder to do that when the team doesn’t win. It’s nice when you go out and you have a good start and the team scores five runs and you guys win 5-2 and everything feels great. That’s not the way it always happens. I think that’s why I keep talking about being objective with your opinions of how you’re doing, and the last couple have definitely been much better.”
Prior to Friday, Eovaldi didn’t have an extensive track record of success against the Giants. Quite the opposite.
In his first eight starts against San Francisco, Eovaldi posted a 9.45 ERA over 40 innings, by far the worst mark of any team he’s faced. His second-highest ERA against any individual team, for comparison, is 5.78 against the Toronto Blue Jays.
“Eovaldi had all the good pitches today, so it wasn’t easy for the offense, for sure,” said outfielder Jung Hoo Lee, who went 1-for-4 with three strikeouts.
The Giants had one final opportunity in the bottom of the ninth inning to tie the ballgame, but the calculus of the inning changed due to a questionable call.
With the count at 2-2, the Rangers’ Robert Garcia threw a high-and-inside fastball that sent Lee to the ground. The ball appeared to hit Lee’s bat. The umpires determined the ball hit Lee’s hand, and Lee was saddled with a strikeout.
Manager Bob Melvin had an extensive conversation with several umpires, saying that he “tried to make an argument for everything” but the call stood. Lee said postgame that the ball hit the bat, adding that he would’ve been on the ground in pain if the ball actually hit his hand.
“I was getting out of the way and I made that swing. But I just don’t understand why that call was made. Because even though the call was made, if there was a replay that could’ve happened, I think it would’ve been nice. What the umpires kept on saying is that I went for the swing and then it hit my hand — that’s why we can’t play the review because the call is already made as a strikeout. We can’t make the call for a foul. So, I don’t know where the basic standard would be for an umpire right now.”
This is the second time in as many weeks that Lee has had an odd interaction with the umpiring crew in the ninth inning of a ballgame. Home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi took exception in Philadelphia when he thought Lee was tapping his helmet to argue balls and strikes — the tap of a helmet being how hitters challenged a call with the automated ball-strike system during spring training. In reality, Lee was just adjusting his helmet.
“I thought he was trying to get out of the way of it,” Melvin said. “You can call what you call wherever the bat goes, but it looked like he was more trying to get out of the way of it.”
Worth noting
- Ryan Walker retired all three batters that he faced in the top of the ninth, a much-needed clean inning after the Giants’ closer allowed six earned runs and recorded one out in his last two outings. “That was big for him. He pitched really well,” Melvin said.
Originally Published: April 25, 2025 at 9:56 PM PDT
