Giants get ‘punched in the face’ by Nationals on Justin Verlander’s historic day originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Giants entered Sunday’s rubber match against the Washington Nationals with a chance to win their third consecutive series, and after the first inning, it seemed like the game had all the makings of a magical day at Oracle Park.

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Justin Verlander entered his 20th start of the 2025 MLB season needing just three strikeouts to reach the 3,500th of his career, and he became the 10th big-league pitcher ever to do so after striking out the side in the first inning. But the celebration, which included a standing ovation from 40,089 fans as he walked off the mound, was short lived as San Francisco went on to lose 8-0.

The Giants mustered just three hits against Nationals left-hander MacKenzie Gore and never even reached second base, though Verlander put them in an early hole after his historic first inning, allowing four runs in the second on a pair of doubles followed by a two-run homer from CJ Abrams.

The 42-year-old ended up striking out six and allowing five earned runs while walking one across five innings of work when all was said and done.

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“I was happy to get there,” Verlander told reporters after the game of his strikeout milestone. “Happy to have a moment with the fans. It’s a cool milestone … I really appreciate what it’s taken to get there.

“Three bad sliders. Really, two. Kind of worked out of a jam in the second and threw a mediocre slider that gets hit right down the line. And then, obviously Abrams, that one kind of just backed up on me. So that was the difference in the ballgame right there.”

Spencer Bivens entered in the sixth and surrendered three more runs — one earned — over the next three innings, and the Giants’ second bright spot of the game came when infielder Christian Koss made his second mound appearance of the season to wrap things up in the ninth (and preserved his 0.00 ERA).

A clearly frustrated Bob Melvin took the podium after the loss and didn’t hold back on San Francisco’s performance, with the Giants manager stating he thought his team was more prepared after their hitter’s meeting entering the series finale.

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“The rest was awful,” Melvin said of everything that happened after Verlander’s milestone. “I mean, we have 40,000 people here and we don’t give them anything to root for the entire game other than that. Unfortunately, that probably is as disappointing [of] a game we’ve had all year.

“Back to [Verlander], he strikes out the side in the first and has that moment, that was great. But he’s got a lot of accomplishments, a lot of stripes.”

After taking series from both the New York Mets and Pittsburgh Pirates on the road, the Giants returned home and beat the Nationals on Friday — and for one night, it appeared as if they had solved their recent struggles at Oracle Park. But after losing their last two games to Washington and their winless homestand to end July, the Giants now have gone 2-11 in their last 13 home games and averaged just 2.3 runs per game during that span.

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“Everybody was prepared,” Giants third baseman Matt Chapman told reporters in the clubhouse after Sunday’s loss. He agreed with Melvin’s sentiment that the shutout defeat was a bit surprising to the team.

“We were ready to go, we were excited. Our goal was to win today, and we went out there and kind of got punched in the face a little bit. So I don’t think anyone ever plans to have the game go the way today did, but it’s just how it went.”

The Giants now enter a three-game series Monday against the San Diego Padres, who currently own the second National League wild-card spot, having missed out on some real momentum. Still, San Francisco, now 59-59, sits just four games back of the third and final wild-card position with 44 games left to play.

“Every game from here on out is huge for us,” Chapman said. “We got to turn the page. This one sucks, it stings, but we’ve got to turn the page and get ready to go to war tomorrow.”

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