CINCINNATI — Justin Verlander would be a first-ballot Hall of Famer if he retired tomorrow. He’s done just about all there is for a starting pitcher to do in this game. Rookie of the Year. MVP. Two World Series titles. Three Cy Young Awards. But there is one major box he’s yet to check: 300 wins.
It’s improbable, without doubt; Verlander is 42-years-old, the oldest active player in baseball, and stands 38 wins away. But he showed on Saturday afternoon at Great American Ball Park that his ambitions aren’t impossible, tossing five innings of two-run ball with five strikeouts in his Giants debut. After being saddled with the no-decision, unable to protect a two-run lead as the Giants (1-1) lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2, he’ll have to wait until the home opener to inch closer to history.
“Ultimately, my guys gave me a two-run lead and I would have liked to have been able to hold that,” said Verlander, the oldest pitcher to appear in a game for the Giants since 46-year-old Randy Johnson in 2009. “I usually try to take a pretty objective view of my performance — good or bad. I think this was okay. It wasn’t great, but definitely a step forward from last season.”
Performance aside, Verlander’s underlying metrics looked much more encouraging compared to last season, particularly with his four-seam fastball. Along with throwing his fastball 0.6 mph harder than a year ago, Verlander saw an uptick in his spin rate, too. Verlander averaged 2395 RPMs (revolutions per minute) last year, but was up to 2459 RPMs against the Reds, a noteworthy increase given that higher spin rate fastballs create more backspin and don’t drop as much as expected. His curveball also exhibited three more inches of horizontal movement compared to last year, a continuation of what he did in spring training.
“He looked good,” said manager Bob Melvin. “His pitch count got up after the last inning a little bit. Gives up two runs, leaves the game and we’re in a tie game, so he did his job.”
Following an excellent spring after signing a one-year, $15 million deal, Verlander looked as advertised in the first inning, retiring the side in the first inning with two strikeouts, ending the frame by freezing Elly De La Cruz with a payoff curveball. He encountered a bit of trouble in the second when the Reds (1-1) put runners on first and second with one out, but escaped unscathed.
By the bottom of the third, Verlander’s 263rd win looked within reach. Wilmer Flores, fresh off hitting the go-ahead, three-run home run on Opening Day, hit his second homer in as many games, a line drive that scraped over the left-field fence. Jung Hoo Lee, who drew two crucial walks in the season opener, collected his first hit and RBI of the year in the third, pulling a single into right field to drive in Heliot Ramos. The two-run cushion wouldn’t last.
Verlander made his first true mistake of the evening in the third, hanging a curveball to Matt McClain that was sent into the left-field bleachers for a solo home run, slicing the lead to 2-1. One out away from completing the fifth inning, Verlander then allowed back-to-back hits to McClain and De La Cruz, the latter driving in the former to tie the game.
“Elly hit it in the right spot. That’s baseball,” Verlander said. “You can beat yourself up as a pitcher on many things, but if you make a pitch and the guy doesn’t hit it hard and he hits it in the right spot, you just have to tip your cap and move on. He laid off a really good slider the pitch before that. That’s what the best players in the game do.”
Following Verlander’s departure, the Reds’ Christian Encarnacion-Strand, who attended College Park High School in Pleasant Hill, hit an opposite-field solo home run off reliever Spencer Bivens to give the Reds the 3-2 lead. Unlike Opening Day, Cincinnati wouldn’t let another lead slip away.
The Giants didn’t lack in the hit department — both teams had eight on the day — but they hit into three double plays in the sixth, seventh and eighth that stifled rallies. For manager Bob Melvin, the double plays weren’t about a lack of situational hitting.
“They were just balls on the ground during double play situations, which hurt us,” Melvin said. “We put the ball in play today. We only struck out one time; it was 17 on (Thursday). But the double play ball hurt us.”
Trivino makes return
Lou Trivino made his first appearance in a major-league game since Oct. 5, 2022, pitching a scoreless eighth inning with a strikeout.
“With the amount of time, too, and the injury, you just don’t ever know if you’re going to be the pitcher (you were),” Verlander said. “You have to believe it, but there’s that little person in the back of your head that you have to fight with and truly believe that you’re going to be back and be the pitcher that you can be. You just don’t really know until it happens.
“All of a sudden, you go back out there, you feel good, you feel like you used to and you start having success. It’s a great feeling. Really happy for him.”
Trivino, 33, signed with the Giants as a minor-league free agent with an invitation spring training and pitched his way onto the Opening Day roster after tossing 9 1/3 scoreless innings during spring training. The right-hander underwent Tommy John surgery in ’23 and spent all of ’24 in the minors.
“I had my fingers crossed for him. Sometimes you can be a little amped up in those situations,” Melvin said. “Cutter was good. Fastball was good. I’m glad he got a clean inning and (he’s) now kind of on his way. It’s not foreign territory for him to be in a big league game anymore.”