CHICAGO — The apologies are piling up more than the wins for Giants pitcher Justin Verlander, who received another “dude, I’m sorry” Tuesday night at Wrigley Field.
The latest was delivered by closer Ryan Walker, whose messy work in the ninth inning “ruined” — that’s Walker’s word — the opportunity for Verlander to snag his first win as a Giant and the 263rd in his legendary career.
In the grand scheme of things, as far as the standings and Giants’ win column go, it didn’t really matter because of a wild and zany series of events that followed. The Giants wiggled out of a 10th-inning jam and scored a whopping nine 11th-inning runs, the most in an extra inning in franchise history, to pull out a satisfying 14-5 victory over the Cubs.
“We went off,” Verlander said, obviously far more joyous about the team win than bummed about the latest missed opportunity for a personal win.
“It’s a team sport. Not everything is in your control as a starter, and I know that. It’s really early. Still got a lot of starts left. Could win five in a row and look up in a month and be, like, wow, that was a great run, right where you need to be — big picture.”
Too many good things happened for anyone to be concerned about Verlander opening the season with eight straight winless starts, the longest stretch of his career. For example, the defense was far sharper than the forgettable performance Monday. The offense jumped to an early four-run lead, thanks in part to Jung Hoo Lee’s first home run since his breakout weekend at Yankee Stadium. And despite the wobbly ninth inning, the bullpen prevailed in the end — Kyle Harrison even made his season debut and got the final three outs, two on strikeouts, as he fired his newfound 96-97 mile per hour fastball.
That the Giants made history with the nine-run explosion made the evening sweeter. Their first eight batters in the 11th reached base, and Heliot Ramos doubled twice in the rally.
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Still, because good teammates are good teammates, Walker was somewhat bothered that he didn’t save the game in the ninth and get Verlander the win. He walked two batters and yielded a hit, narrowing the lead from 5-3 to 5-4.
Manager Bob Melvin pulled his closer so lefty Erik Miller could face left-handed hitter Kyle Tucker, but Tucker singled up the middle to tie the game. Miller also pitched the 10th and escaped from a runners-on-second-and-third-with-one-out jam.
“I literally apologized to him today,” Walker said of Verlander. “I’m, like, ‘Dude, I’m sorry. I ruined this twice for you already. He understands. He said, ‘Dude, I get it. We’re all trying our best out here. It’s all good.’ He was cool about it. That’s all good, but I still feel terrible it was me who ruined two wins for him.”
Both Walker and Miller said Verlander’s quest for win No. 1 as a Giant wasn’t on their minds on the mound. But as Miller said, “After the fact it’s, like, man, that sucks because of how many times something like that has happened.”
In Verlander’s previous three starts, he posted a 1.96 ERA. On April 25, he exited in the seventh with a 3-2 lead, but reliever Tyler Rogers surrendered two runs in the eighth, and the Giants lost 4-3. In each of the two starts before that, Verlander yielded one earned run in six innings. Yet zero wins.
“It’s crazy because he could easily have four or five wins at this point,” Melvin said.
It’s relevant, of course, because the 42-year-old would love to join the prestigious 300-win club, and every one of these no-decisions makes it harder to reach the milestone that just 24 pitchers have on their resumes. Then again, if he doesn’t win another game in his career, he’s still assured of first-ballot entrance into the Hall of Fame.
Tuesday, while relying mostly on a fastball-slider mix, he averaged 94.8 miles per hour on his fastball and touched 96.2 while batters swung at 13 of his sliders and missed six, an impressive ratio.
Yet he wasn’t pleased he lasted five innings and said, “I’ve been somebody who never really expects a lot of wins when I go five innings. I don’t really feel like I did my job as well as I should have. I don’t really view that as a job well done.”