While the first part of his first season with the San Francisco Giants wasn't much to write home about, Justin Verlander did his best to make up for it. Verlander gave up two home runs in the first two innings on Saturday, but managed to pick up the victory as the Giants beat the Colorado Rockies 4-3 at Oracle Park.

Verlander has already said that he wants to pitch one more season. Now, the question is whether he will return to the Giants or maybe go join another team. Could Verlander possible think about having a third tour of duty with the Houston Astros, who were eliminated on Saturday from postseason consideration?

Anything is possible, of course. Giants fans might want to see him back at Oracle Park again or, well, maybe not. Things are up in the air for Verlander at this time, much like San Francisco, who will do some homework on improving their franchise before next season.

Verlander, 42, pitched six innings en route to wrapping things up with a 3.85 ERA. In 29 starts for the Giants, he pitched 152 innings. That's pretty good for a 40-something pitcher in the majors. The victory also gave Verlander his 266th career victory, tying him with Bob Feller and Eppa Rixey for 34th in AL/NL history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

He desperately wants to reach the 300-win plateau in his career. Verlander just might gut it out for another season and he's already thinking about how that might work out.

"I think if I can go out and make 29, 30-plus starts and give our team a chance to win for a few more years, then it’s possible," Verlander said, according to Giants reporter Maria Guardado of MLB.com.

"I’m not going to say it’s not," Verlander said. "It’s definitely harder, though. If you make 29 starts, you’d like to win 10, 15 games. It wasn’t in the cards this year. But maybe this year wasn’t meant to be for wins.

"Maybe this year was meant to be kind of for health and kind of re-finding myself and getting used to taking the ball every five, six days and just kind of going out there and being able to log some innings. Maybe that will carry me where I need to go."

Verlander was on a one-year deal with the Giants. He'd have to decide to get a new deal with the team and Giants manager Bob Melvin would not mind seeing the veteran righthander back in his rotation in 2026.

"I’d love to see him back," Melvin said. "He’s going to get a nice offer. It wouldn’t even shock me if he got a two-year deal based on the way he’s pitched."

The Giants do have some solid assets heading into next season with Rafael Devers getting in a full Spring Training with San Francisco.

Whatever happens, though, Giants fans can say that they watched a future Baseball Hall of Famer throw in front of them this season. That'll be a memory many will hold onto fondly.