SAN FRANCISCO — Justin Verlander has used Eminem’s “Till I Collapse” as his walk-out song for roughly his entire career. The track has always resonated with Verlander, less of an anthem and more of a mantra.
‘Til I collapse, I’m spillin’ these raps long as you feel ’em,
‘Til the day that I drop, you’ll never say that I’m not killin’ ’em
As Verlander departed following five scoreless innings, the Giants on their way to a 13-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles, “Till I Collapse” once again boomed throughout Oracle Park. The Sunday afternoon crowd did their best to drown out the instrumental with a raucous ovation.
Verlander’s season-high 10 strikeouts were impressive enough. But at 42-years-young, Verlander ended a game with a pitch count of 121 — a relic of a bygone era.
“There’s a competitiveness to him that very few have,” said manager Bob Melvin.
That competitiveness was needed on an afternoon where Baltimore’s batters made Verlander work for his outs. Of the 22 batters that Verlander faced, there were 12 instances when a plate appearance lasted at least six pitches. Gunnar Henderson and Samuel Basallo, in particular, put together nine-pitch at-bats.
Through four innings, Verlander had already exhausted 94 pitches. Despite his pitch count nearing triple digits, Melvin said there was no conversation about Verlander’s day ending early.
The Orioles made Verlander throw 27 pitches in the top of the fifth, but Verlander ended his day on his own terms by striking out Ryan Mountcastle swinging with a changeup. By afternoon’s end, Verlander notched the 265th win of his career.
“Obviously, we want to try to get him the win,” Melvin said. “At that point in time, I don’t think pitch count really mattered to him. I’m glad he got the out he needed to.”
“The old school in me is like, ‘It was only five innings.’ I’m not sure I go home and say that was a great start,” Verlander said. “At the end of the day, I think they did a great job battling off some good pitches and fouling off a lot of stuff. I can only control what I can control, and I was clearly doing a decent job of not allowing a lot of hard contact.”
Unlike previous starts this season, Verlander wouldn’t be straddled with a no decision due to a lack of offense. The Giants, with the help of three errors from the Orioles, scored at least 10 runs for the the third time in their last five games.
Rafael Devers led the Giants on offense as he fell a triple shy of the cycle, collecting a single, double and a homer, which extended San Francisco’s home run streak streak to 14 games, the longest since 2002. Devers finishes August with nine home runs and a slash line of .291/.397/.592, his first truly elite month since joining San Francisco.
“It’s kind of who he is,” Melvin said. “When he gets on hot streaks, it’s pretty extreme. He can carry a team. That’s the way he’s swinging right now. You feel like every time he comes up, something good is going to happen. He’s hitting fastballs, he’s hitting breaking balls, balls up, balls down. He has the ability to do a lot of damage, which we’re seeing right now.”
After winning seven of their last eight games to conclude August, the Giants (68-69) enter September five games back of the New York Mets (73-64) for the final NL wild card spot. They’ll have an opportunity to stack wins in the coming days when they begin a three-game series in Denver against the Colorado Rockies, who own the worst record in the majors.
“Obviously, we haven’t been playing great baseball here, so to turn that around and start to play the way that we know we can feels good,” Verlander said. “We just have to carry this momentum and hopefully play our best baseball for the last month.”
Whisenhunt hits injured list, Teng to start on Monday
Rookie left-hander Carson Whisenhunt was placed on the 15-day injured list prior to Sunday’s game (retroactive to Aug. 28) with a back strain.
Right-hander Kai-Wei Teng has been recalled from Triple-A Sacramento and will start in Whisenhunt’s place on Monday against the Colorado Rockies.
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