ATLANTA — At long last, Justin Verlander has his first win as a Giant.
Verlander pitched around five walks to deliver five scoreless innings and Rafael Devers enjoyed his first multi-homer game with San Francisco as the Giants (54-49) defeated the Atlanta Braves, 9-3, on Wednesday afternoon at Truist Park. For Verlander, it marks the 263rd win of his career.
This moment has been months in the making for Verlander, who didn’t record a victory in his first 16 starts of the season. That’s not just the longest winless streak of his career, but the longest by a Giants starting pitcher (not including openers) in a single season in franchise history. In the middle of that stretch, Verlander spent a month on the injured list due to right pectoral soreness.
While Verlander has had his share of clunkers this season, the 42-year-old had pitched well enough on numerous occasions to pick up his first win before spring gave way to summer. For one reason or another, the streak just kept on growing.
Verlander allowed two runs over five innings in his very first start as a Giant on March 29, but ended the day with a no decision.
On three occasions — April 20, May 6, June 29 — Verlander exited the ballgame in position to win but San Francisco’s bullpen blew the lead at some point following his departure.
On four other occasions — April 25, May 1, May 15, June 29 — Verlander turned in quality starts but didn’t receive enough run support. There was also Verlander’s quality start against the Philadelphia Phillies on July 9 after he made a mechanical tweak, a game that ended in a 13-0 blowout.
On this occasion, he finally ended a game with a win in hand.
Atlanta’s Spencer Strider and Verlander endured nearly identical first frames. In the top of the first, the Giants loaded the bases against Strider and made him throw 31 pitches but didn’t end up with a run to show for it. In the bottom of the first, the Braves loaded the bases against Verlander and made him throw 40 pitches but don’t end up with a run to show for it. In total, the first inning lasted 33 minutes.
Verlander’s lengthy first inning was the product of him walking Matt Olson, Sean Murphy and Ozzie Albies. San Francisco’s bullpen began to stir as the inning went along, but Verlander kept manager Bob Melvin from again dipping into his bullpen early.
Strider and Verlander traded zeros through the first four innings, but San Francisco’s offense finally awoke in the top of the fifth.
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Rafael Devers, who returned to DH after playing his first game at first base, gave the Giants a 1-0 lead by golfing a shoe-top slider over the right-field fence. Devers’ homer, his 18th of the season, registered an exit velocity of 92.5 mph, the lowest that Devers has ever had on a homer in the majors. Two batters later, Matt Chapman expanded San Francisco’s lead to 3-0 with an opposite-field, two-run shot, his 14th homer of the season.
Once Verlander departed after five innings with a three-run lead, the Giants’ offense continued to pile on and help secure Verlander’s first victory with the orange and black.
Devers doubled San Francisco’s lead to 6-0 in the top of the sixth with a no-doubt, three-run home run, his first multi-homer game as a Giant. In the seventh, San Francisco put up its third three-spot of the day on RBI singles from Dominic Smith and Luis Matos, as well as an RBI groundout from Patrick Bailey.