San Francisco Giants starter Justin Verlander was touched up by the Cleveland Guardians on Wed Jun 18, 2025 at Oracle Park in San Francisco (AP News photo)

Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Oracle Park

San Francisco, California

Cleveland Guardians 4 (37-35)

San Francisco Giants 2 (41-33)

Win: Logan Allen (5-4)

Loss: Justin Verlander (0-4)

Save: Emmanuel Clase (16)

Time: 2:27

Attendance: 34,055

By Stephen Ruderman

The Giants have now lost four-straight for just the second time this season, as Justin Verlander struggled in his return from the Injured List, and the Giants’ offense stumbled again in a 4-2 loss to the Guardians.

Following the hoopla around the trade for Rafael Devers, the Guardians beat the Giants 3-2 in Devers’ debut last night. The loss was also the third-straight for the Giants, whose offense has started to go dormant again.

The Giants turned to Justin Verlander, who was activated off the Injured List to make his 11th start of the season. Verlander was still looking for his first win as a Giant, as he came into Wednesday night’s game 0-3 with a 4.33 ERA over ten starts in a Giants’ uniform.

Verlander last started on May 18 against the A’s. In that start, Verlander gave up two runs and walked five over four innings, and he got a no-decision. However, Verlander also aggravated his right pectoral muscle in that start, which prompted the Giants to place him on the IL

Unfortunately, Verlander was given a rude welcome in the top of the first inning. Kyle Manzardo lined a double to right field with one out, and then Jose Ramirez, the lone-remaining member of the 2016 Cleveland Indians, lined a base-hit to right to put the Guardians on the board early.

The Guardians could have made it a bigger inning, but when Ramirez took off for second base, catcher Patrick Bailey, who was also returning from the IL Wednesday night, gunned Ramirez down at second. That’s right: a whole battery coming off the IL.

Left-hander Logan Allen took the ball for the Guards, and he started his night with a one, two, three bottom of the first. Allen threw a scoreless bottom of the second, and he worked his way out of a jam in the bottom of the third.

Verlander settled down to throw a scoreless top of the second and a one, two, three top of the third. Unfortunately, Verlander found himself back in trouble in the top of the fourth.

Carlos Santanta reached on a chopper to the right side that took a weird hop off the lip of the outfield grass and was bobbled by second-baseman Tyler Fitzgerald. In this era of not giving errors on plays that clearly should be, Fitzgerald was cast with a tough error.

Lane Thomas lined a base-hit to center to put runners at first and second for Cleveland with one out. Up came Daniel Schneemann, and he blasted a three-run home run to left-center, and the Guardians now had a 4-0 lead.

The Giants went down scoreless against Allen in the bottom of the fourth, and the Guardians made noise again in the top of the fifth. Monzardo, who doubled and scored the game’s first run in the top of the first, doubled with one out. The longtime veteran, Carlos Santana, then walked two batters later with two outs.

That would end the night for Verlander, and Bob Melvin turned to Spencer Bivens. Bivens caught Thomas looking at a sinker on the outside corner to end the inning with the score still 4-0.

Verlander gave up four runs, three of them earned, over four and two thirds innings in his return from the IL. He gave up seven hits, but he struck out six, and he hit 95 miles per hour on the gun.

Allen retired the first two men he faced in the bottom of the fifth, but Baile lined a base-hit to center to extend the inning for Heliot Ramos. Ramos got a “sweeper”—don’t worry, I’ll get around to saying it soon—and golfed it out to left-center field for a two-run shot to put the Giants on the board and cut the deficit in half.

The Guardians’ lead was now 4-2, as Bivens threw a one, two, three top of the sixth. The Giants’ bullpen did their job, as they held the Guardians scoreless the rest of the way.

Unfortunately, the Giants’ offense couldn’t do their job. Allen ended up going five and a third innings, and the Guards’ bullpen took it the rest of the way. The Giants had runners on in each of the final four innings, but they just couldn’t keep things going, and the Guardians won it 4-2.

Logan Allen got the win; Justin Verlander took the loss; and Emmanuel Clase got the save.

The Giants have indeed just four-straight, as they fall to 41-33.

The Giants will look to salvage a game in this series and avoid the sweep in a Thursday matinee at Oracle Park. The Giants will have their ace, Logan Webb (6-5, 2.58 ERA), who has also become their stopper, on the mound Thursday. Gavin Williams (5-3, 3.89 ERA) will go for Cleveland.

Usually, weekday afternoon games at Oracle Park start at 12:45 p.m. That will not be the case Thursday. First pitch will be at 1:05 p.m.

Giants News and Notes:

To make room for Justin Verlander and Patrick Bailey, who both came off the Injured List Wednesday night, the Giants sent right-handed pitcher Tristan Beck and catcher Logan Porter back to Triple-A Sacramento.