It was not a pretty sight at Oracle Park on Monday night as Justin Verlander gave up four runs in the fifth inning and got pulled by San Francisco Giants manager Bob Melvin. Verlander had been doing so much better lately, yet things fell apart against the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Giants, seeing their National League postseason hopes just keeping on dwindling away, lost 6-5 in a game that they needed to win. Giants fans might have seen Verlander's last start with San Francisco as he might head to another team after this season.

Of course, that's assuming the Giants will not make the playoffs at all.

Verlander is going to go into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., at some point. He's been simply brilliant when pitching for the Detroit Tigers, Houston Astros and New York Mets, winning two World Series championships with the Astros in 2017 and 2022. His Game 5 win in the 2022 World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies added just another accolade to his long list of accomplishments.

The Giants had hoped Verlander would be able to deliver a season full of great starts, but his 1-12 record at one point didn't help. Verlander didn't get much run support over the season. Still, Melvin and the pitching coaches were looking for much, much more from him.

Verlander had tweaked a couple of things in his pitching arsenal recently, which parlayed into better results. 

For this season, though, Giants fans will be left with a sense of wanting more out of him.

Before the Cardinals came back on San Francisco, the Giants got things off to a roaring start.

Heliot Ramos smacked a leadoff home run in the first off of St. Louis starter Michael McGreevy. Ramos wasn't through at the plate, though. His bases-loaded, two-run single in the fourth put the Giants up 4-2 at that point.

Then Verlander came back out and allowed St. Louis to score four runs off of him and take a 6-4 lead in the fifth inning. The Giants added a run later in the game, but it didn't lead to more offense. San Francisco ended up on the losing end.

Oh, what about those postseason hopes? San Francisco is now 77-80 overall and sits 3 1/2 games behind the New York Mets and Cincinnati Reds for that last National League playoff spot. There are five games remaining in the 2025 MLB season for the Giants.

It's going to take a Bay Area miracle for San Francisco to make it. Losing any more games is simply out of the question if postseason play is to become a reality. 

Giants fans, though, might be checking their San Francisco 49ers and Golden State Warriors schedules by this point.