At 42 years old, Verlander secured his third win of the season with a single game featuring ten strikeouts.

As Justin Verlander left the pitching mound today at Oracle Park, Eminem’s track "'Till I Collapse" echoed through the stadium, earning the 42-year-old pitcher a standing ovation from the fans.

However, he wasn’t quite sure what to make of the reaction.

“Old-school folks might say, ‘He only pitched five innings,’” Verlander remarked. “I’m not sure I’d call it a great start when I get home.”

Despite throwing a season-high 121 pitches, Verlander earned his third win wearing the Giants uniform. He struck out ten batters over five scoreless innings, helping the Giants dominate the Orioles 13-2 and conclude their six-game home series.

“I think they (the opponents) did well fighting off some good pitches and fouling off a lot of balls,” Verlander said. “I can only control what I can control. Obviously, I did well not allowing many hard-hit balls; I just wish I could have gotten outs quicker. But I think the fans were really great. It felt really good.”

Verlander navigated each inning by escaping jams with runners on base and struck out three batters in the top of the fourth. Even after throwing 94 pitches through four innings, both Verlander and manager Bob Melvin knew without question he would return for the fifth inning. Melvin didn’t even speak to him in the dugout.

“Clearly, at that point, we wanted to push for the win,” Melvin said, whose team has won seven of their last eight games. “I don’t think pitch count really mattered to him. I was glad he got the outs when he needed them. … He’s probably had to grind harder than any other starter this year. But if you look at the numbers—three hits, zero runs, 10 strikeouts.”

“Pretty impressive.”

This marked the 73rd time in Verlander’s career he struck out double digits in a game and his first since October 4, 2022. At 42 years and 192 days old, he became the oldest pitcher to record 10 or more strikeouts in a game since Randy Johnson, who did so at 44 years and 347 days on August 22, 2008.

In the past 125 years, only a handful of Hall of Famers have achieved this feat at Verlander’s age or older: Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens, and Gaylord Perry. Verlander is now just five strikeouts away from surpassing Perry to move into eighth place on the all-time strikeout list.

Verlander fully utilized his off-speed pitches and changeups, with 16 of his 23 swinging strikes coming from his curveball, changeup, slider, and sweeping slider.

“It was kind of like a battle between the old bulls and the young bulls today,” said Orioles acting manager Tony Mansolino. “We had a lot of young guys out there trying to get what they wanted instead of accepting what he was giving them, which was the changeup.”

But as Orioles hitters kept fouling off pitches, Verlander’s pitch count climbed early, prompting him to throw more fastballs in an attempt to get outs faster.

This was evident in the fifth inning when Verlander got the first batter, Daniel Johnson, to ground out but then found himself in trouble again after walking Jackson Holliday and allowing a single from Jeremiah Jackson. Even though his pitch count surpassed his season high of 104 pitches set on April 15 in Philadelphia, Verlander stayed on the mound and focused.

Relying on his changeup, Verlander used a mix of slider, changeup, and curveball to unbalance Gunnar Henderson, then froze him with a knee-high fastball for a called strike three, earning the second out. He began the next at-bat with a fastball that Ryan Mountcastle fouled off, followed by a sweeping slider for a strike, and ended the inning by inducing the first baseman to chase an inside changeup.

“You can definitely feel a bit of fatigue setting in,” he said. “Overall, everything in the body feels good. … You just keep throwing and trust your instincts.”

Verlander acted on his judgment to identify which pitches the Orioles’ lineup was handling well and which they were not. By the end of the fifth inning, he simply aimed to throw all his pitches into the strike zone.

“You turn the page after every pitch, absorb as much as you can from what you learn, and then move on to the next pitch,” Verlander continued. “It’s a cycle.”