Justin Verlander's brother blames his struggles with SF Giants on bad luck

Veteran SF Giants starter Justin Verlander has had a rough season. He has a record of 0-7 and a 4.70 ERA, but his brother Ben Verlander, an analyst for FOX Sports, believes Verlander's struggles can be attributed to bad luck.

Verlander took to social media to make this view clear. While acknowledging his bias given it is his brother, Verlander wrote, "He’s had many very good starts with truly some of the worst luck I’ve ever seen. It makes no sense to me. Really frustrating to watch."

Justin Verlander's brother comes to his defense amidst SF Giants struggles

Verlander does make some good points about his older brother. The future Hall of Fame pitcher has had a number of solid outings with the Giants. In 10 of his 15 starts, he has gone five innings or more and allowed three runs or less which are generally accepted to be respectable outings because the pitcher at the very least kept his team in the game.

Verlander's fastball velocity has been good, not dropping at all from last season and he has shown that he can hit the high-90's if needed which is impressive given the fact that he is 42 years old. His FIP is 4.17 on the year which suggests that he may have gotten some bad luck from his fielders behind him, but it is not too much different from his 4.70 ERA.

Nonetheless, the results have not been there. He remains winless which is not entirely his fault because Ryan Walker cost him two wins by blowing the save in the ninth. Yet, he had a downright embarrassing start in Sacramento on July 4th which really made one wonder whether the Giants would have to consider moving on from the veteran.

The issue is that the Giants are stuck with Verlander right now. There are no valid options to replace him in their minor league ranks, and their starting pitching depth was thinned out after the Giants traded Kyle Harrison and Jordan Hicks to the Red Sox in the Rafael Devers trade.

For now, San Francisco has to rely on Verlander. There is always the chance he can find something in his mechanics and turn things around, but he could just as easily tweak something at his age and find his way back on the IL. Maybe the team should explore the trade route to improve the rotation.

At least his brother is still in his corner because many Giants fans have grown impatient with him even if it can be argued that he has suffered from some bad luck this season.