San Francisco Giants pitcher Justin Verlander is congratulated upon entering the dugout after pitching five innings against the Baltimore Orioles at Oracle Park on Sun Aug 31, 2025 (Bay Area News Group photo)
By Vince Cestone
SAN FRANCISCO–The San Francisco Giants, all but left for dead, are not done yet, as they beat the Baltimore Orioles 13-2 at Oracle Park on Sunday afternoon.
With the New York Mets losing 5-1 against the Miami Marlins at Citi Field on Sunday afternoon, the Giants pulled to within 5 games of the third National League Wild Card spot.
The Giants still have an uphill road to climb, with a 1.9% playoff chance, according to Fangraphs, but with the Mets playing the next three games against the 80-58 Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park and the Giants playing the lowly Colorado Rockies for the next three games, the Giants have a chance to cut that deficit down to three or four games.
Even if the Giants ultimately fall short, an improbable late-September playoff push could prove to be a valuable experience for the likes of younger players Luis Matos, Drew Gilbert, Casey Schmitt, Jung Hoo Lee, and Heliot Ramos.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Here’s what happened in Sunday’s game.
The Giants started off with a bang, as Rafael Devers crushed a home run to get the Giants going in the first inning. That’s all the Giants would need as Justin Verlander earned his third win of the year, going five shutout innings, amassing 10 strikeouts.
Devers would end up going 3-for-5 with a home run and double. He was a triple short of the cycle.
Verlander wasn’t perfect though–he pitched through two walks in the first inning and a walk and single in the second and fifth innings. His best inning came in the fourth when he struck out the side.
“He’s a battler,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said. “He threw a lot of breaking balls today against a team that hits the fastball pretty good. So, going into games, it’s not like he’s not prepared…it was nice to be able to get him another win.”
The Giants offense came through for Verlander, which wasn’t the case for much of the year. The Giants scored 13 runs on 16 hits for the future Hall of Famer.
The Giants tacked on two more runs in the third inning and four more in the 4th inning. The Giants four-run, fourth inning rally included six hits and a two-run triple by Drew Gilbert, who was acquired in the Mets trade for ace reliever Tyler Rogers.
With the help of an error by Orioles shortstop Luis Vasquez, the Giants added three more runs in the 6th inning.
San Francisco wasn’t done–scoring three more runs in the eighth inning off of Orioles catcher Alex Jackson, a position player who came into pitch with the score 10-0 Giants.
The Orioles would score two runs in the ninth inning off of reliever Spencer Bivens.
Melvin says it was important for the Giants to finish August strong, ending the month with a 5-1 homestand, including a sweep of the Chicago Cubs.
“We needed to play better,” Melvin said. “We needed to play better at home too. So, to sweep the Cubs and take two out of three here, swing the bats better, score some runs, you know, going into Colorado feeling good about ourselves offensively…we think we’re in a much better place.”
Giants third baseman Matt Chapman left the game in the 6th inning after fouling a ball off of his foot. He was down for about a minute but got back up and finished the at-bat. He walked, but Casey Schmitt pinch ran for him, likely as a precautionary measure with the score being 8-0 Giants at the time.
The Giants have a golden opportunity to make up more ground in the Wild Card standings for the next three games. If they’re going to make a late-season push to get back into serious playoff contention, now is the time.
San Francisco plays the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field at 1:05 p.m. PDT on Labor Day. Giants rookie right-hander Kai-Wei Teng (1-3, 8.78 ERA) will take on the Rockies’ right-hander Chase Dollander (2-11, 6.55 ERA).
For the Giants, go time is now.
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