On Sunday afternoon, the red-hot San Francisco Giants capped off a three-game sweep against their former Bay Area rivals, the Oakland Athletics. The tightly contested ballgame ended in a final score of 3-2, with slugger Heliot Ramos' eighth-inning RBI single securing the victory.
Any win over a hated rival is always cause for celebration, but this victory in particular was overshadowed a bit by the concerning performance the veteran starter and future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander had on the mound.
Verlander lasted just four innings, giving up two earned runs and walking one batter in the process. While this stat line might not seem concerning on its own, it was apparent to everybody watching that the legendary righty was laboring far more than usual on the mound.
He threw 84 total pitches across his four innings of work, and of those, just under half were called strikes. It became apparent that something was off in his last inning on the mound, which is where the A's did all of their damage.
Luckily for San Francisco, Verlander was able to limit the damage before things got out of hand. Still, the troubling start left many fans wondering what caused the uncharacteristically rocky performance.
Verlander would shed some light on all of this in his post-game presser. According to NBC Sports Bay Area's Alec Pavlovic, the 42-year-old stated that he was working through "something physically" during his rough outing.
"I was dealing with something physically that the team was aware of," Verlander expanded. "I was able to work through and didn't feel like I was going to put myself at risk for injury, but clearly it was affecting my velocity and mechanics."
Verlander also said that while the apparent injury's limitations on his performance were frustrating, he and the team agreed that it didn't appear to be anything serious, which is why he was allowed to play on.
"I don't think anybody was really happy when the first pitch of the game was 90, but I was in constant communication with the staff and I think we were all confident that I wasn't going to risk a catastrophic injury while I was out there," Verlander said. "I wanted to go out and give us a chance."
This is certainly a massive sigh of relief for both Verlander and the team, and it also speaks volumes to his competitive edge. He wants to win no matter what it takes, even if it means battling through some discomfort in the process.
With Verlander on track to make his next start, hopefully he'll finally be able to secure his first win as a Giant.
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