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.
