San Francisco Giants’ Justin Verlander walks to the dugout after pitching against the Tampa Bay Rays in the fifth inning of a baseball game, Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vasquez)

By Lincoln Juarez

SAN FRANCISCO–The San Francisco Giants bullpen blew a 1-0 lead in the eighth inning and the Giants suffer another late-game loss 2-1. Giants pitcher Justin Verlander threw his best start of the year and went seven innings deep for the first time as a Giant.

Fans entering Oracle Park Saturday night hoped that Bay Area rapper Saweetie wouldn’t be the most entertaining thing they saw. 

Looking to avoid a sixth straight series loss at home, which has only happened once in the history of Oracle Park (2008), the Giants turned to 42-year-old Justin Verlander to put an end to what’s been a miserable losing streak. 

Still with just one win on the season, Verlander made his 21st start of 2025 Saturday night. He allowed five earned runs last Sunday when the Giants got torn apart by the Washington Nationals 8-0. Other than recording his 3,500th strikeout Sunday afternoon, Verlander did not provide much else in the defeat. 

Saturday night, Verlander looked stellar. Through his seven innings of work he tallied 0 runs, 2 hits, 0 walks, and 8 strikeouts. The seven innings he threw Saturday night made for the longest outing of his 2025 campaign and his best outing as a Giant to date. 

The Giants could only put together one run of offense for their Hall of Fame starter who earned his 3,511th career strikeout Saturday night allowing him to pass Walter Johnson on the all-time strikeout leaderboard. 

In his 21 starts following Saturday’s no-decision, the Giants have provided just 38 runs of support. That put him at third fewest runs of support for pitchers across the majors with at least 20 starts. 

Saturday night was also the seventh time this season that Verlander exited a game inline for the win. The Giants have only won one of those games. 

Through the struggles Verlander has faced he’s managed to put together some quality starts giving the Giants chances to win ballgames. Bob Melvin said postgame when asked what that says about Verlander, “That’s why he’s gonna be a Hall of Famer”. 

Worse than the Giants not being able to help with the bats, the bullpen couldn’t preserve the win as Jose Butto recorded two outs on two pitches but lost his command in the eighth. Matt Gage replaced him after the Rays tied the game at 1-1 and couldn’t hang on either. A hit-by-pitch and three singles allowed the Rays to rally for two runs to take a late lead in the eighth and they wouldn’t look back. 

The Giants went down one, two, three, in the home eighth and struck out three consecutive times following a Jung Hoo Lee single in the bottom of the ninth. 

San Francisco has lost seven in a row and 15 of their last 16 home games, marking the worst 16-game stretch at home since 1901. 

Sunday afternoon is game three of the series where the Rays RHP Ryan Pepiot (8-9 ERA 3.86) will face the Giants RHP Logan Webb (10-9 ERA 3.34), as Webb will take the mound to try and put an end to the losing streak. 

First pitch 1:05pm at Oracle Park.