SEATTLE — Robbie Ray knew he’d blown out his arm the moment he threw the pitch in 2023. The pain felt like a knife through his left elbow. He was only two innings into his first start of the season for the Seattle Mariners .
He instantly understood that his year was over. He also figured that he couldn’t do more damage by continuing to pitch. So he finished the inning.
Then he threw another. He tried to get through the fourth, too, but with nothing behind his pitches, he retired just one of the four batters he faced. Advertisement “Didn’t want the bullpen to wear all of that,” Ray recalled on Sunday, when the sun came out in Seattle and he returned to the mound at T-Mobile Park.
It was Ray’s first time pitching off that mound since he tore his flexor tendon along with his ulnar collateral ligament here and consigned himself to the 16 months of recovery and rehab that come with reconstructive elbow surgery. When the Mariners’ front office found itself under orders to cut costs this past winter, and the San Francisco Giants were willing to take on the remaining three years and $75 million of his contract, Ray’s rehab protocols were transferred to San Francisco. And upon his return with the Giants .
.. Ray walked off the mound with a trainer again.
In the fourth inning again. But this time it was with a different injury and a different thought process. He will get an MRI to determine the severity of a strained left hamstring.
Ray is hopeful that he will benefit from exercising a little more discretion this time. “I just felt it on one pitch, felt it tighten up on me, I took a step and I was like, ‘Eh, I’ve tried to push through injuries in the past before and it hasn’t gone well for me,'” Ray said following the Giants’ 4-3 loss. “So hopefully I caught it before anything significant.
But we’ll find out. “It felt very minor. I just didn’t want to push it and make it into something significant.
” Robbie Ray exited today's start with an apparent injury pic.twitter.com/Im4WzHh2Qq — SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) August 25, 2024 The Giants received just four, three and three innings from their starting pitchers while losing two of three to the Mariners.
But every game was a competitive, one-run affair. Once again, Giants manager Bob Melvin was left to lament the hits that didn’t come before he began to consider the pitches that weren’t made. Advertisement Here are three takeaways from a series that dropped the Giants back to .
500 and shoveled more dirt on their postseason odds. You can never have enough starting pitching depth This has always been a true statement throughout baseball history. But it’s the kind of truth that can be measured in degrees.
And the Giants have to be feeling especially overheated this season. It’s a miracle that they are a .500 team in late August after making it through most of June with 1 1/2 starting pitchers — Logan Webb and the waning effectiveness of converted reliever Jordan Hicks — while filling the rest of the innings with bullpen games and fungible assets.
Ray’s injury once again puts Melvin and his staff in the predicament of identifying probable starters. They will start Webb, Kyle Harrison and Hayden Birdsong in Milwaukee when their road trip continues on Tuesday. Snell would be lined up to start Friday at home against the Miami Marlins .
But for once, the Giants had the luxury of using a few days off to skip Harrison and space out his starts after he surpassed his career-high for innings. He’s at 117 now and there cannot be much appetite for him to end the season at more than 150. That’s even more true for Birdsong, who has one fewer professional season and has thrown 102 2/3 innings between three levels.
It’ll be a lot tougher to manage those workloads without a full complement of starters. Tristan Beck is making progress in his rehab from surgery in April to repair an aneurysm in his arm, but he didn’t make it out of the second inning Friday while allowing seven runs (six earned) on eight hits in his last rehab appearance for Triple-A Sacramento at Tacoma. Keaton Winn , of course, is out for the season following ulnar nerve transposition surgery.
Perhaps Spencer Bivens could be stretched out to start. Advertisement Point is, this Giants season has been inescapably defined in part by their inability all season to maintain a stable of five healthy starting pitchers. Why should anyone expect it to get any easier in September? Heliot Ramos keeps convincing you that he’s here to stay It was a nice story when Ramos became the first homegrown Giants outfielder to make an All-Star team since Chili Davis in 1986.
It was an iconic moment in a home tribute game to Willie Mays when he made a catch in center field with his back to the infield and No.24 on his back. But this is a game in which unexpected success is often met with ingrained skepticism.
Even the expected success is hard to maintain, as so many who’ve had early success — Julio Rodríguez , Corbin Carroll , et al — this season have demonstrated. Ramos keeps giving you more evidence that this is for real, though. He hit two home runs in the series at Seattle.
His shot on Friday landed in the upper deck, took a hard bounce off a seat, and was scooped up by a little girl in a pink raincoat who was sitting in the very last row. Two days later, his teammates were still watching that home run in the video room and marveling at its flight. Ramos followed up with a home run in the first inning Sunday that might have been even more impressive because it came on a 95.
6 mph fastball from Bryan Woo that was no mistake. The pitch was elevated and on the inner portion of the strike zone — a place where almost any right-handed swing would’ve resulted in a jam shot or popup, or more likely, no contact at all. Ramos pulled it for a two-run home run.
Heliot Ramos' 2nd blast of the series gets him to 20 home runs on the year. 💥 pic.twitter.
com/8fpy73aQPX — MLB (@MLB) August 25, 2024 “That (location) is everybody’s Achilles heel, and probably his, too,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said. “But he knew that’s where he’s probably going to get some pitches. So you identify it, try to stay on top of it and to not (chase) too far up.
That’s a tough pitch to hit and he hit it good. It shows that he’s making adjustments and it’s not a fleeting, one-month thing. He’s turning it into, at this point, a really, really good season.
” It was Ramos’ 20th home run in a season that began with his promotion from Sacramento on May 8. He’s the first Giant under the age of 25 to hit 20 in a season since Pablo Sandoval in 2011. Ramos is well aware that 10 more would make him the first Giant to hit 30 in a season since Barry Bonds in 2004.
Advertisement “Tough one,” Ramos said. “But I might do it, yeah.” Ramos has 28 home runs altogether when you count the eight he hit for Sacramento.
He’s closing in on David Villar ’s total of 36 home runs between Triple A and the majors in 2022. Of course, Villar hit the bulk of those homers at Triple A. So there’s no comparing that season to what Ramos is doing at the game’s highest level this year.
“I’m not surprised,” Ramos said. “I thank God and my family for this moment and the season I’m having so far. I’m trying to keep at it and get better every day.
” The Giants are still trying to have fun — and that’s a good thing The point might be coming soon when the Giants acknowledge that the wild card is an impossible task. If they were to get swept in Milwaukee, it wouldn’t be a complete surprise if players like Michael Conforto landed on the waiver wire so the Giants could save a little money, create opportunities for younger players and give a respected veteran a shot at playing for a contender. In the meantime, the Giants seem to be doing a good job of staying positive and maintaining group dynamics.
Most of the players used their free Thursday in Seattle to attend a house party at Blake Snell’s place in nearby Edmonds, Wash., complete with a dessert truck and portable wood-fired pizza ovens. Sean Hjelle's pregame fit 😂 pic.
twitter.com/BvLRoiui7c — SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) August 25, 2024 Following Sunday’s game, most players participated in a jersey-themed flight. Ray tucked a Penny Hardaway Orlando Magic jersey into his jeans and boots.
Logan Webb wore a Deion Sanders Atlanta Falcons jersey. Casey Schmitt donned a “Waterboy” Bobby Boucher jersey. Birdsong and Patrick Bailey scored brownie points with Christian McCaffrey 49ers jerseys.
Taylor Rogers represented his Denver Broncos, Mark Canha channeled Lionel Messi in a pink Inter Miami CF shirt and Matt Chapman paid homage to Kobe Bryant with a powder blue jersey. Sean Hjelle won best in show. He wore an Average Joes shiny gold shorts and jersey kit from “Dodgeball.
” Headband included. Advertisement The Giants would be having more fun if they were 15 games over .500, of course.
But this is not a group that gives off a vibe that it cannot wait for the season to end. When it comes to assessing clubhouse chemistry, that’s a good place to start. (Photo of Robbie Ray: Lindsey Wasson / Associated Press).
