San Francisco Giants 42-year-old Justin Verlander faced the Rattlers today and allowed no runs in seven innings, with a defense rate as low as 0.87 in his last five games, coming out of a season low. He said in an interview today that he changed his strike angle about a month ago, sacrificing a little bit of ball speed to bring more deception. Since then, his defense rate has dropped to 0.87 in his last five starts and 31 innings, and his season defense rate has dropped from 4.55 to 3.75.