Justin Verlander Finally Wins First Game With Giants After 16 Tries

The pitcher flashed a bit of his old self Wednesday.

Justin Verlander pitches in the first inning against the Braves. / Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

When San Francisco Giants pitcher Justin Verlander was coming up, the pitching win was still an object of romance.

Verlander won 17 games in 2006, and those wins bought him an American League Rookie of the Year award. He lost 17 in 2008 to lead MLB in a lost season, and then won 24 in 2011—one of the great individual campaigns of this century.

In the present day, the pitching win is a rustic statistic mostly useful for trivia—science having long since provided more effective means of player evaluation. The fact that Verlander started his first 16 games in '25 without winning, however, vexed the baseball world anyway.

On Wednesday, he finally entered the win column, with the Giants besting the Atlanta Braves 9–3 to capture the 263rd win of his career.

Future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander's drought is finally over:
Verlander (1-8, 4.70 ERA) wins his first game of the season.
San Francisco Giants 9, Atlanta 3.
Verlander now has 263 career victories.

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) July 23, 2025

Verlander was shaky, but the three-time Cy Young winner was still in there somewhere. He ended his outing with a hit, five walks and three strikeouts in five shutout innings to move to 1-8 on the season.

The surefire future Hall of Famer is MLB's active wins leader, and is two victories shy of cracking the top 40 in history.

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