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Justin Verlander has had a tough time compiling wins as a Giant this season, though he’s not fully at fault. Inadequate hitting, blown leads, and suspect defense have denied him several notches in the win column.
Through it all, he continues to rack up the strikeouts, and he’s three shy of becoming the 10th pitcher in history with 3,500 K’s, a substantial milestone that he could reach Sunday in his latest start at Oracle Park.
A day after 24-year-old Carson Whisenhunt struggled in his third major-league outing in a 4-2 loss to the Nationals, the 42-year-old Verlander will make his 546th start and undoubtedly add to his strikeout total that’s prominently displayed on a list of pitching immortals.
“Those names are the real deal,” Verlander said. “You appreciate the time and history behind certain numbers. I knew (3,500) was attainable. It wasn't something that I circled on the calendar, but I was aware.”
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For now, nine pitchers have struck out 3,500-plus batters, and Verlander (3,497) would make 10. He’s closing in on the great Walter “Big Train” Johnson (3,509), who was considered a strikeout pitcher in the early 1900s and led the league in K’s 12 times, but needed nearly 2,500 more innings than Verlander to reach the 3,500 club.
Ahead of Johnson is someone familiar to Giants fans and has a statue outside Oracle Park, Gaylord Perry at 3,534. No. 1 on the list, of course, is Nolan Ryan, the only man in the 5,000 club. Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, and Steve Carlton top 4,000, and the rest of the top 10 list is Bert Blyleven, Tom Seaver, Don Sutton, Perry, Johnson, and Verlander.
“That’s big boy stuff,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said. “Justin has brought so much to the team. He’s all in on everything. He’s so curious. In between starts, he’s always looking for something else. He scouts everybody very hard. You understand why he’s gotten to the point he is right now.”
Verlander is pitching his best ball of the season, yielding one earned run over 15 innings through three starts, an ERA of 0.60. In that span, he finally got his first win, July 23 at Atlanta. His most recent start was more typical of his season — he exited after five innings with a 4-1 lead at Pittsburgh, and the Giants lost 5-4.
The run support ranks among the lowest in the majors. In five of his starts, the Giants scored zero runs (during his time in the games), and they scored 37 runs in his 19 starts, 1.95 per game. It’s an average of 3.7 runs per nine innings. Whatever the metric, it’s not good, but he never complained about not being able to further add to his win total, now 263. If anything, he has insisted he hasn’t done enough by staying longer in games.
Verlander, whose fastball reached 98 miles per hour in his last start, isn’t planning to call it quits anytime soon. He told The Standard he’s open to pitching next season. After missing significant time in 2024 with nerve issues in his neck, he’s encouraged about his health, though he missed a month this season with a pectoral injury.
“I mean, I’d like to,” he said. “At this point in my career, if something goes really wrong, I’m not going to rehab a surgery or anything. I always understand that it could be it, but I think physically, I've shown some good health this season. As I’ve been on the mound, things have started to get better and better. To me, that’s a good sign with all the work I put in after my nerve injury last year, which notoriously takes a long time. The ball’s rolling in the right direction, and I would like to continue pitching. You never know. It’s a fickle game too, but I think the stuff is still there.”
Naturally, the velocity isn’t in-his-prime velocity. As he said, “I’ve got to try a lot harder to throw harder.” But it’s certainly good enough to get major-league hitters out, especially when his other pitches are in sync.
Verlander watched Whisenhunt, the team’s top pitching prospect who’s 18 years younger, surrender three solo homers, all on sinkers, to James Wood (opening Saturday's game) and Paul DeJong and Josh Bell in consecutive third-inning at-bats. Opponents had gone 1-for-18 off that pitch in the lefty’s first two starts, but Saturday’s pitches were too often across the middle of the plate. He also had issues locating his signature changeup.
The Giants had won five of seven games since the trade deadline, but they reverted to their bad habits in clutch situations Saturday, going 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position. Rafael Devers homered for the second straight day and singled during a run-scoring rally. After Sunday’s series finale, the third-place Giants will play the second-place Padres seven times in 10 games.
Verlander, who’s expected to be inducted into the Hall of Fame the first year he’s eligible, appreciates and embraces baseball history and the star pitchers who came before him. While in college, he met Bob Feller and Warren Spahn. He has spent different degrees of time with Ryan, Clemens, and Randy Johnson, who won his 300th game as a Giant at age 45.
The 3,000 club has 20 members, and three are active. Aside from Verlander, it’s the Blue Jays’ Max Scherzer (3,456) and Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw (3,014), who opposed each other Friday, and Kershaw came out on top, both with 218 career wins, trailing only Verlander among active pitchers. The last duel between pitchers with 3,000 strikeouts was Scherzer and Verlander in 2023.
While Verlander ranks 10th all time in strikeouts, he’s third in strikeouts per nine innings (9.0), trailing Johnson (10.6) and Ryan (9.5). He’s scheduled for enough starts the rest of the way that he could pass both Walter Johnson and Perry, starting Sunday at Third and King.
“The fanbase here is awesome,” he said. “They appreciate the game and are very knowledgeable fans. It's one of the things I've been really impressed with playing here. The fan base is great. Good baseball fans.”
Verlander isn’t the only decorated pitcher who came to San Francisco while closing in on a milestone. Johnson won his 300th game with the club, and Carlton notched his 4,000th strikeout – with Melvin as his catcher in 1986.
“It was Eric Davis, and I called for a slider,” Melvin said. “Carlton shook to a fastball, and I almost felt like putting the slider down again. But I figured, ‘You know, he knows what he’s doing.’ Struck him out on a high fastball.”