SAN FRANCISCO — Justin Verlander is trying to do a better job at being present. It hasn’t fully settled in with him that he surpassed Walter Johnson for ninth place on the all-time strikeout list.
“Maybe when I rest my head on my pillow tonight, or maybe in the offseason. I don’t know,” Verlander said. “Last few years, especially coming back from Tommy John, it’s been an emphasis of mine to pay attention a little bit more to things.”
The Giants right-hander entered the night one strikeout shy of passing Johnson. He got there on the second batter he faced Tuesday night in a 5-2 win — his first at Oracle Park — against the Cubs.
After falling behind 2-1 in the count against Kyle Tucker — spiking a slider in the process — the 20-year veteran went into attack mode. He fired off a slider and a changeup in the strike zone. Tucker whiffed on each for Verlander’s milestone 3,516th career punchout.
“It’s pretty amazing,” said Verlander, who added four more strikeouts across six innings against the Cubs to boost his career count to 3,520. “Walter Johnson’s a legend. It’s one of those things, you take a lot of pride in it.”
Verlander, 42, is within reach of rising to eighth place this season, too. Gaylord Perry is that target, with 3,534 strikeouts. Don Sutton would present more of a challenge at seventh place with his 3,574 career strikeouts.
The Blue Jays’ Max Scherzer and Verlander spent several seasons jockeying for position on the K list, but J.V. has edged away. Scherzer has 3,468 strikeouts, 11th all time and second among active pitchers. The Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw also joined the 3,000-strikeout club this season.
Strikeouts aren’t the only milestone Verlander made progress toward on Tuesday. He made no secret about chasing his goal of 300 wins when he signed with the Giants as a free agent last offseason. He still has a bit of ground to make up on that front. At 2-10 on the year — his first win with the Giants waited until July 23 — Verlander has 264 career wins.
No. 264 came by pitching six full innings and allowing two runs on seven hits with two walks and five strikeouts on 101 pitches. It was the fourth time Verlander has reached a triple-digit pitch count this season.
The slow headway toward his 300-win goal isn’t entirely Verlander’s doing. He has been in line for eight wins this season, only to see most of the leads he left behind unravel once he departed the game.
In 19 of his 23 starts, the Giants’ offense has produced three or fewer runs of support for Verlander. They’re 3-16 in those 19 games.
“Unfortunately, we haven’t gotten him more wins, but I think he’s pitched well enough to deserve some more,” Giants third baseman Matt Chapman said. “He’s been pitching well. I feel like he’s strung together a lot of really quality starts. So I was glad we were able to get him the win today.”
The season has taken a toll on Verlander, both mentally and physically. He landed on the injured list and missed almost a month from late May into June with right pectoral soreness.
“You can get so stuck in the mindset of just grinding,” Verlander said. “And this year has been really tough for that. It’s been really hard for me not to crawl into my little shell. My family helps a lot off the field. And here, we got a great group of guys. They’ve helped a lot. So, just relish in the positives.”
The positives on Tuesday came in the form of the strikeout achievement and his first career win at Oracle Park.
“I wish I had one back in 2012,” Verlander said with a laugh, referring to the year his Tigers lost to the Giants in the World Series. “… Feels great!”
Matthew Boyd, the Cubs’ starting pitcher opposite Verlander, was a teammate of Verlander’s with the Tigers from 2015-17. The value of being in the clubhouse with him still resonates almost a decade later.
“I got to watch a Hall of Famer go about his business every five days,” Boyd said. “I got to watch what he did in between starts and how he prepared. He took me under his wing and he helped me out a ton. So it was really cool to see him continue to climb that list.”
