The bizarre case of Justin Verlander, who just can’t win with Giants

This is getting eerie. Bizarre. Downright freaky.

The winningest active pitcher in the major leagues can’t win a game for the Giants.

Is it a curse? A jinx? A hex? Old-fashioned bad luck? Whatever it is, Justin Verlander isn’t digging it.

The 42-year-old, who has been sitting on 262 wins since the moment he signed his $15 million contract on Jan. 11, hasn’t budged in the win column. He’s no closer to 300. No closer to 263. 

On a cold and windy Thursday night by the bay, Verlander had his best chance for his first win as a Giant. He cruised through six innings. He led 3-1. After he yielded a homer to open the seventh and was replaced one out later, the lead was 3-2. He still was on target for a victory celebration.

But because this is 2025 and wins are so hard to come by for the future Hall of Famer, it all went away in the eighth. With extremely reliable Tyler Rogers on the mound, the Rockies tied the score — prompting another no-decision for Verlander — and then took the lead.

The Giants lost 4-3 to the worst team in the majors, and Verlander is winless through seven starts in orange and black.

“This is kind of difficult as somebody who likes to win, likes to win as a team,” Verlander said. “You want to do your part, but also you try to look at it as, if you give your team a chance, if you give your team enough chances, the wins will start coming. You go deeper in games, keep a lot of runs off the board, and those things just kind of fall in line and start happening.”

Verlander certainly was due. Even when he pitched in dominant fashion, as he did in his previous two starts — one earned run in six innings against both the Angels and Rangers — he didn’t get a win.

Only one other season during Verlander’s 20-year career did he fail to win in his first seven starts. That was 2015 when he opened on the injured list and didn’t debut until June 13 because of a lat issue. His first win came in his eighth start on July 29.

“It’s just been unfortunate,” Verlander said. “I mean, our bullpen has been phenomenal all season. It’s just, unfortunately, a couple starts for me. … But that’s baseball, like that. You can’t sit here and be like, ‘Woe is me.’  You’ve got a bunch of teammates, and you’ve got to trust each other, and we do, explicitly.”

Verlander sped through six innings on just 79 pitches, but Ryan McMahon greeted him in the seventh with a home run. After he retired Mickey Moniak, manager Bob Melvin went to Camilo Doval, who finished the inning.

The eighth went to Rogers, whose 0.59 ERA was second-lowest among big-league relievers. The right-hander had tossed scoreless ball in 15 of his 16 outings. On this night, however, the sidewinder coughed up three hits: Brenton Doyle’s one-out single, Jordan Beck’s game-tying double and Hunter Goodman’s tie-breaking single.

Suddenly, the Giants were on their way to their first three-game losing skid of the season.

“It kind of stinks to mess up the win for J.V.,” Rogers said.

Verlander’s teammates know what’s at stake. They know the significance of his mission not only for the team but himself. Just like in 2009, when Randy Johnson came to San Francisco to finish his career and his Giants teammates rallied around him on his journey to his 300th win.

Verlander has a long way to go (38 more wins), and if he doesn’t reach the milestone, it wouldn’t diminish his career one bit. He’s a first-ballot Hall of Famer regardless, and it’s possible that no pitcher will ever win as much as he’ll win because of how the use of starting pitching has evolved in the game.

“He’s probably going to the Hall of Fame with what we do for him or not,” Rogers said. “I think that’ll be something to think about when he does go into the Hall of Fame. ‘Oh, I was a teammate of his.’ Hopefully we can help him out some more. To give away a win from any starting pitcher doesn’t feel good. It doesn’t matter if it’s first or 300th or whatever. It doesn’t feel good.”

The pitching wasn’t the lone issue. The Giants’ offense continued its funk. Leadoff hitter Heliot Ramos opened the first inning with his second homer in two days, this one a career-high 112.8 mph off the bat. The Giants scored twice more in the sixth on doubles by Wilmer Flores and Mike Yastrzemski. It was the ninth straight game the Giants fell short of five runs, and they’re 4-5 in that stretch.

Kyle Freeland became the latest left-handed starter to minimize San Francisco’s bats. The Giants now are 2-8 in games the opposition starts a lefty and have lost six consecutive starts against southpaws.

The defense was spectacular as several Giants turned in big plays from Yastrzemski’s running catch in Triples Alley to Heliot Ramos’ sliding catch in shallow left. In the sixth, Matt Chapman threw out all three batters in the inning including one from the outfield grass. Catcher Patrick Bailey chipped in and tossed out a runner trying to steal before picking off another.

When it was over, Verlander realized a valuable lesson about pitching in San Francisco: keep moving on cold nights. He was on the bench for an extended stretch during the Giants’ sixth-inning rally and tightened up, then immediately gave up a homer to begin the next inning.

“I’m not as used to pitching in cold weather outdoors as I did in Detroit,” Verlander said. “I’ve been in Houston, an indoor stadium, for a long time now, and rarely got cold games. Just something I need to take into account in the future. Night game here in San Fran, I think we can always anticipate it to be a little chilly, which I don’t mind at all.”

Christian Koss was the second baseman because Tyler Fitzgerald was placed on the injured list with a fractured rib. He was diagnosed last week with a chest contusion and tried to play through it, but his condition worsened, and he was in extreme pain on his final swing Wednesday in San Diego. So he went for an MRI Thursday morning, and the fracture was detected.

Fitzgerald said he hopes to recover in two weeks, but that might be a stretch. He’ll be shut down for a couple of days and then engage in leg work but won’t do any baseball activities for at least a week as he waits for the rib to heal.

In Fitzgerald’s absence, Koss and Brett Wisely will share second base. A left-handed batter, Wisely was added to the roster and actually heard the news of his promotion from Fitzgerald: “He called me and is, like, ‘Heard anything?’ ‘No, why?’ ‘Well, I got a cracked rib, I think you might be getting called up.’ ”

Shortly thereafter, Sacramento manager Dave Brundage officially gave Wisely the news. Wisely entered the game as a pinch-runner in the eighth and was caught stealing.