Ray’s dominant return finally gives Giants some momentum originally appeared in NBC Sports Bay Area
LOS ANGELES – Robbie Ray leaned back in a leather chair Wednesday and smiled as the music played in the Giants’ clubhouse. Hall and Oates gave way to AC/DC, and sometimes the sound was so loud that other people in the room had to strain to hear the conversations. Ray looked calm, at peace, like someone who hadn’t expected a single butterfly to flutter into his stomach as he climbed the mountain.
And then the game began.
In his first inning in 16 months, Ray struck out two, walked two, threw two wild pitches and ran with his wildness. As the pitch count reached thirty, Sean Hjelle ripped off his hoodie and began to let loose on the visiting Dodger Stadium bullpen.
The Giants ruled that Ray had 85 pitches in his return from Tommy John surgery, but manager Bob Melvin had no intention of letting the former Cy Young Award winner get closer to the halfway mark in just one inning. Ray was on the ropes but got out of the first with just a run on the board. The lefty sat in the dugout with catcher Curt Casali, and the pair stopped to catch their breath.
“Okay, we checked that box,” Casali thought. “Now he can do what he does.”
For the rest of the night, it was vintage Robbie Ray.
In his Giants debut, off-season commercial acquisition threw five hitless innings and was supported by an opportunistic offense. O Giants won 8-3, making Ray the winner, who retired 14 times after a walk by Andy Pages with the bases loaded. The win was Ray’s first in the big leagues since September 3, 2022.
“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “It’s been 16 months since I was last in a big league stadium. It’s definitely been a long journey, but I’m definitely very grateful and excited to be back today.”
Ray said he was just too excited for the first round. Stuff from him was great in the bullpen, but once he took the mound in front of 54,000, he was a little quick with the front end, repeatedly driving breaking balls into the dirt.
“You might have expected something like this,” Casali said. “Just trying too hard. We’re grown men, but we still do stupid things from time to time too.”
Ray was one well-placed hit away from heading to the clubhouse disappointed, but that night the Dodgers wouldn’t get their first until the seventh. He came out of the first and struck out the side in the second, putting an arc over the top with a lofted fastball that got past Shohei Ohtani. In the fifth, on his 86th pitch, Ray again kicked a fastball to Ohtani, ending the night in style.
“When I talked to him, he said, ‘I was emptying the tank,’ but it seems like he empties the tank with every pitch,” Melvin said, smiling.
Ray had a line of teammates waiting with hugs after the final pitch, and then he looked into the seats and found his wife and two older sons, who had traveled to see his return. He always waves to his kids after he finishes, and the Giants are hopeful that will be something they see in the next two years and two months.
This was the day they had been waiting for since they sent Mitch Haniger and Anthony DeSclafani to the Seattle Mariners in a deal that could be considered a steal. It couldn’t have gone much better and potentially altered the Giants’ momentum with just six days left until the MLB trade deadline.
Executives don’t make big buying and selling decisions based on a game, or often even a week, but the club desperately needed a win to show the board that this is a group worthy of staying together.
Ray and Blake Snell, they have two former Cy Young winners who have allowed six hits in 23 combined innings this month. Kyle Harrison and Hayden Birdsong are playing well, and Alex Cobb could return to the rotation as early as Sunday. Team ace Logan Webb will get the ball on Thursday in hopes of salvaging a series split against Clayton Kershaw.
The selling point is everything else the Giants have shown over the past week and, in fact, over the past four months. There isn’t really an argument to buy yet, not with the team still five games under .500, but Ray has made a pretty compelling case for Team Don’t Sell at least.
No one would like to see this rotation in October. The Giants have a long, long way to go to get there, but on Wednesday it was a lot easier to dream than at any time recently. And maybe, in some ways, the Giants have already made their big move.
They always knew Ray would return before the trade deadline. He arrived looking like an ace.
“It’s great,” Casali said. “It’s like a business acquisition.”
