A’s spoil Verlander’s anniversary, thump Giants in rivalry’s 1st Sacramento game
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- A’s lineup scored six early runs to rout Verlander and beat the Giants 11-2 in Sacramento.
- Verlander fell to 0-6 with a 4.84 ERA in first winless 12-start stretch for Giants.
- Sutter Health Park hosted first Giants-A’s regular season game in front of 12,322 fans.
The Athletics’ bats did not allow future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander to enjoy the 20th anniversary of his Major League debut.
The A’s celebrated Fourth of July on Friday night by thumping Verlander and the Giants, 11-2, and scored six runs off the generational right-hander in just three innings at Sutter Health Park. Many of the A’s hitters, who are currently in the early- or mid-20s, were learning their ABCs and how to read and write when Verlander first pitched for the Detroit Tigers on July 4, 2005.
“It’s weird. He’s a guy my older brothers watched,” said Nick Kurtz, the A’s 22-year-old rookie first baseman. “I’ve seen him in his prime. I’ve seen him with the Tigers, all these different teams. He’s 40-something years old and he’s still doing it. It’s pretty incredible.”
But Verlander, 42, is still looking for his first win in a Giants uniform after becoming the first player in team history not to earn a victory in 12 starts. Heading into Friday he was the first pitcher in baseball to go without a win in 13 starts since 2023. Verlander is a three-time Cy Young Award winner, MVP in 2011 and eight-time All-Star. He helped the Houston Astros win World Series in 2017 and 2022.
He was far from that form on Friday.
Verlander fell to 0-6 with a 4.84 ERA while San Francisco (47-42) has lost eight of its last 11 games. Verlander joined the Giants in the offseason on a one-year, $15 million contract.
It happened in front of the biggest crowd to see an A’s home game at Sutter Health Park this season. The A’s announced a sellout of 12,322. The vast majority of fans in attendance were sporting orange and black. But they had little to cheer about while their team didn’t score until the eighth inning when the game was out of reach.
Kurtz was one of six A’s hitters 25 or younger to go up against Verlander on Friday. He hit a home run in the sixth inning off reliever Mason Black. Fellow rookie Denzel Clarke, 25, hit a 471-foot blast in the seventh inning. Lawrence Butler, 24, scored three runs atop the lineup. Max Muncy, 22, had two hits with a run scored and driven in.
Rookie shortstop Jacob Wilson, 23, who was announced this week as the American League’s starter in this month’s All-Star Game, hit a two-RBI double off Verlander in the second inning.
“It’s kind of cool. You step in the box and it’s like, ‘Oh, cool, Verlander is up there,’” Clarke said. “That’s kind of before the game happens. But when you step in the box, you’re competing, and we’re here to win. So when you get out there, it doesn’t matter who’s out there.”
The A’s veteran of the group is 30-year-old slugger Brent Rooker, who added two hits and two RBIs, including a double in the second inning that made it 5-0. It felt like a knockout blow to the Giants given their recent offensive struggles.
“I think the crazy part is the longevity on his part, right?” Rooker said of Verlander. “I think that’s just insanely impressive to be able to do what he does going on 20 years now. ... It’s fun to go up against the best guys you grew up watching. The elite arms of a generation. He’s definitely up there with (Clayton) Kershaw and (Max) Scherzer. Those three guys being the three that dominated that time period.”
The A’s, now 37-53, got six shutout innings from their starting pitcher JP Sears, who is one of the more experienced players on the roster with four seasons in the Majors. Friday marked his second straight start without giving up a run after throwing 5 2/3 innings against the Yankees on June 28.
Sears noted how unique of situation it was to go against a future Hall of Famer in Verlander, even if the all-time great pitcher didn’t have his best stuff.
“It’s really cool to think about, just how cool baseball is,” he said. “That’s the only sport where you see that a lot. ... It’s definitely something that after the game you’re like, wow, that was someone that I really was looking forward to facing one day, or can’t believe I got to face him.”
Independence Day at Sutter Health Park
Fans in attendance weren’t treated to a competitive contest on the field — but did enjoy near-perfect baseball weather with temperatures settling into the 70s, plus a postgame fireworks show to mark the Fourth of July holiday.
They also got to see the first-ever regular season Giants-A’s game hosted at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, where the A’s are playing home games this year and are slated to do so in 2026 and 2027 before a planned move to an as-yet-unbuilt ballpark on the Las Vegas strip.
The three-game series continues Saturday, with Rocklin native Logan Webb (7-6, 2.61 ERA) set to toe the rubber for the Giants against A’s starter Luis Severino (2-9, 5.09 ERA). On Sunday, the Giants will send Hayden Birdsong (3-3, 4.30) against Jacob Lopez (2-4, 3.88). Both games are 7:05 p.m. starts.
This story was originally published July 4, 2025 at 11:46 PM.
