Texas Rangers starter Nathan Eovaldi deals to the San Francisco Giants in the bottom of the second inning at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Fri Apr 25, 2025 (AP News photo)

Friday, April 25, 2025

Oracle Park

San Francisco, California

Texas Rangers 2 (15-11)

San Francisco Giants 0 (17-10)

Win: Nathan Evaldi (2-2)

Loss: Justin Verlander (0-2)

Save: Luke Jackson (8)

Time: 2:40

Attendance: 40,080

By Stephen Ruderman

The Giants’ offense was unable to give Justin Verlander the runs he needed for his first win, as Nathan Evoldi just stymied them with six strong shutout innings and seven strikeouts, and the Rangers shutout the Giants 2-0 in the series opener Friday night at Oracle Park.

I know this next sentence is going to sound odd, but Bruce Bochy brought the Rangers into town for a 2010 World Series rematch to start what will be a series and weekend of celebrating old times.

Speaking of old times, two longtime pitchers in Nathan Evoldi and Justin Verlander squared off, as the Giants looked to build on another big comeback win yesterday. Oh yeah, and our old friend, Joc Pederson, was also on with the Rangers.

However, there was one little problem. The game would be on Apple TV, which most fans do not have, so at best, they would have to listen to Friday night’s game on the radio.

Both pitchers started off well, as they traded zeros in the first two innings. The Rangers then fired the opening salvo in the top of the third, as Jake Burger hit a leadoff double, and Wyatt Langford got him in with a two-out base hit to left field.

Evoldi continued to shut the Giants down, as he pitched a scoreless inning in the bottom of the third, and threw a one, two, three bottom of the fourth. Verlander also continues to deal, as he threw back-to-back one, two, three innings in the fourth and fifth.

Evoldi threw another scoreless inning in the bottom of the fifth, but Verlander ran into trouble in the top of the sixth. Josh Smith led off the inning with an infield hit, and up came Langford. The Ranger appeared to have made it 2-0 when Langord hit a double that bounced off the wall left-center. However, upon review, the ball had bounced up against the back wall at the left end of the Giants’ bullpen, so it was ruled a ground-rule double, and Smith was sent back to third base.

However, the Rangers would get that second run when Joc came up. Joc had snapped his brutal 0-for-41 stretch on Wednesday, so of course he would burn his old team. Joc hit a ground ball to second that hit off the glove of the diving second-baseman, Tyler Fitzgerald, into right for a base-hit, and Smith scored to make it 2-0.

Oddly enough, Verlander would get out of the rest of the inning without any further damage. Verlander struck Adolis Garcia out swinging, and he got Marcus Semien to ground into a double play to end the inning.

That did it for Verlander, who had a good night. He threw six solid innings and gave up two runs to a strong Rangers’ team.

Evoldi completed his strong night by striking out the side in a 1-2-3 bottom of the sixth. Evoldi ended up striking out seven in his six innings of work.

Randy Rodriguez pitched a pair of scoreless innings in the seventh and eighth. Ryan Walker then came in for a big outing in the top of the ninth. Walker blew a save in Anaheim on Sunday when the Giants led 4-1 in the bottom of the ninth. He then nearly blew a non-save situation on Wednesday against the Brewers before Doval came in and got the emergency save. Plain and simple, he needed a big inning.

Yesterday, Bob Melvin insisted after Camilo Doval’s second-straight save that Ryan Walker would be the man tonight. Tonight, Walker’s job was to keep the deficit at 2-0. Walker proceeded to get the one, two three inning he desperately needed.

Lefty Robert Garcia had thrown a one, two, three, bottom of the eighth, and Bruce Bochy had him go back out to face the left-handed-hitting Jung Hoo Lee to start the bottom of the ninth. Lee had the count at 2-2. Garcia’s 2-2 pitch was a fastball in on Lee that appeared to hit him on the back of his left hand.

Rangers’ catcher Kile Higashioka asked Home Plate Umpire Austin Jones to appeal down to Third Base Umpire Nestor Ceja. Ceja ruled that he went around, and Lee suffered a rough first out.

Replays then showed that the ball that hit the handle of Lee’s bat and not Lee himself, which means that it should have been a foul ball and Lee’s at-bat should still be alive. Crew Chief and First Base Umpire Todd Tichenor gathered the crew and then explained the call to the crowd.

What’s weird is that before the Rangers appealed down to third, they were the ones that would have wanted the ball to hit Lee’s bat. Now the Giants wanted that. However, since a non-hit by pitch call would not have originally benefited the Giants, they were not able to have the call reviewed according to Major League Baseball’s rules on replay.

The Giants essentially got burned and had to move on. While everything was going on, Bochy quietly brought in his closer, Luke Jackson. Jackson got Matt Chapman to ground out, and struck Wilmer Flores out to end it.

Nathan Evoldi got the win; Justin Verlander took his second loss to fall to 0-2; and Luke Jackson picked up his eighth save.

The Giants fall to 17-10, and despite their strong and exciting start, they have now weirdly been shut out for the fourth time this season, tying the Pirates for the most times shut out in Baseball. Even the best teams have their issues. The Giants have also struck out 240 times the season, the fourth-most in Baseball.

I’m not too worried about the shutouts. Weird things like that happen. However, the Giants do need to get the strikeouts down.

Saturday is Brandon Crawford day, and he will have his official retirement ceremony on the field prior to the game.

Then two undefeated pitchers will square off. Robbie Ray (3-0, 4.07 ERA) will take the ball for the Giants, and he will be opposed by Tyler Mahle (3-0, 0.68 ERA.

First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m PT, but with Crawford’s ceremony, that could be delayed, which is worth it.