SAN FRANCISCO -- Justin Verlander spent most of the first half searching.
Searching for his first win with the Giants, searching for full health, searching for a way to make himself more deceptive to hitters.
On Wednesday afternoon, the 42-year-old right-hander finally found something that he hopes will help him turn the corner in the second half.
Verlander will go into the All-Star break winless in 15 starts after the Giants were routed, 13-0, by the Phillies at Oracle Park, but the final score was far from indicative of the three-time Cy Young Award winner’s performance on the mound.
Verlander took the loss after giving up four runs (two unearned) on seven hits over six innings, but he flashed his best stuff of the year after making a mechanical tweak in between starts. He topped out at 96.9 mph with his four-seam fastball while walking none, striking out seven and generating 16 swinging strikes, his second most in a single start in 2025.
“That was the first time I kind of walked out of an outing and was like, ‘I feel like I can get some people out consistently with that stuff,’” Verlander said.
As has often been the case, though, the Giants (51-43) struggled to play their best baseball behind Verlander. San Francisco committed three errors -- including a pair of throwing errors by five-time Gold Glover Matt Chapman -- and collected only three hits against Phillies left-hander Jesús Luzardo, causing the club to fall short of a three-game sweep in its penultimate series before the All-Star break.
“I feel like I come in here saying the same thing,” manager Bob Melvin said. “It feels like every time we don’t score runs for [Verlander]. At this point in time, he should certainly have a couple wins and he doesn’t. Unfortunately, I think we all kind of feel it.”
Verlander departed with the Giants trailing, 4-0, but San Francisco’s bullpen couldn’t keep it close after that. The Phillies blew the game open by erupting for seven runs against Tristan Beck and Scott Alexander in the eighth. Right fielder Mike Yastrzemski ended up taking the mound in the ninth and yielded two more runs in his second career pitching appearance.
Verlander -- who has received only 26 runs of support in his 15 outings this year -- is now mired in the longest winless streak by a starting pitcher to start a season since Rockies right-hander Chase Anderson’s 16-start stretch in 2023, but he believes he’s close to getting back to his winning ways.
He went back to the drawing board after surrendering a season-high six earned runs over three innings against the A’s on Friday and decided to try taking the ball out of his glove a little earlier on his leg kick to help address his recent lack of deception. He saw immediate results on Wednesday, as he hit 95.5 mph on his first pitch of the game and then struck out Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper swinging on a pair of curveballs in the first inning.
“I think one of the things that I’ve just kind of really been harping on is I feel like hitters have been seeing the ball a little early on me,” Verlander said. “I think my arm is a little late, dragging. I kind of just had this thought a couple of days ago, just to kind of force the issue a little bit, just get it out, get it kind of down where it used to be. It felt good in catch play, and I carried into the game today. I think immediately, the results were great. So yeah, quite optimistic.”
The uptick in stuff certainly caught the attention of the Phillies.
"After that first at-bat, we all came into the dugout going, ‘Oh, crap,’” said Harper, who hit a solo homer off Verlander in the fourth. “He had some stuff today, man. That curveball looked good. The changeup, obviously, and the heater was 97. I mean, he threw a couple in to Schwarber in that first at-bat, and I was thinking in the on-deck circle, ‘Man, this could be a long day.’ Then I punched out in the first at-bat, and I thought it could be."
After a “mentally grinding” first half -- he finished 0-7 with a 4.70 ERA and also missed time with a right pec strain -- Verlander said he’s looking forward to using the All-Star break to reset and continue building on the positive results he saw on Wednesday.
“I’ve been searching a lot,” Verlander said. “It’s been difficult. I’ve been working my butt off, but I'm very optimistic that hopefully this mechanical fix is the one that kind of propels me into a good second half.”