Ray throws second career complete game as SF Giants split series in Arizona

PHOENIX The Giants went into their series finale at Chase Field with a bullpen in need of a breather Wednesday night s - win -inning win required manager Bob Melvin use five relievers Erik Miller Spencer Bivens Randy Rodr guez Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval Doval in particular threw two innings for the first time in three years blowing a save in the ninth before locking down a win in the th Melvin would ve been happy if Robbie Ray went seven innings Ray went and gave the bullpen the entire night off Ray pitched the second complete tournament of his career as the Giants beat the Arizona Diamondbacks - to split the four-game series allowing two runs on a pair of solo homers over nine efficient innings That s the goal as a starting pitcher go as deep as you can Ray mentioned If you can finish a tournament that s even better So I m pretty happy with this one The only other complete challenge of Ray s career ironically enough was with the Diamondbacks On May Ray threw the lone shutout of his career striking out batters without walking a single one in a - supremacy over the Pittsburgh Pirates That season Ray earned the one and only All-Star appearance of his career As the Midsummer Classic looms he s making his event for a second With tonight s complete contest Ray ranks fourth in the National League in innings and fifth in strikeouts while being tied for seventh in ERA and tied for eighth in WHIP He s now one of five pitchers in the National League who has thrown at least innings with a sub-three ERA Logan Webb appears to be a lock for his second All-Star appearance given he s complimenting his National League-leading innings with a ERA and strikeouts Ray s fate appears to be more ambiguous despite his excellent numbers but Melvin believes they re both deserving He makes a great scenario for himself Melvin commented of Ray I would hope that two guys on the same staff wouldn t preclude being on the All-Star unit together if they deserve it They both deserve it Regardless of where he spends the All-Star Break the last several months have affirmed that Ray when healthy is still one of the better left-handed starting pitchers in baseball It s a status he hasn t held in quite specific time Ray essentially lost the entire season due to Tommy John surgery after making one start When Ray returned to the mound last July his body was still reacclimatizing to a starter s workload there was no expectation that Ray would provide six-plus innings every five-ish days Healthy once again Ray is looking the part of a top-of-the-rotation starter I inevitably knew that it was in there It just takes time after surgery Ray revealed Talking with guys it s the -to- months that s where the sweet spot is where you feel like yourself again We kind of hit that around spring training and that s when I started feeling like myself again It s plenty appropriate that Ray threw his second complete match at Chase Field a ballpark he called his home venue for five-and-a-half seasons as a Diamondback Tonight marked his first start in the desert since Aug when he was still pitching for Arizona an outing that featured no fans due to the COVID- pandemic In front of friends and family Ray went the distance He deserved it He desired it Melvin declared When he came in after eight innings there wasn t even a conversation He just looked at me like I got this ' For as well as Ray pitched through the first eight innings Melvin nearly had to call upon his bullpen to finish the job Ray entered the ninth inning having only thrown pitches the only blip on his line up to that point being a solo home run by Eugenio Su rez in the fifth inning The left-hander began the ninth with a groundout but after Ketel Marte homered and Geraldo Perdomo drew a nine-pitch walk Spencer Bivens and Erik Miller began to get loose As pitching coach J P Martinez made a mound visit Melvin decided that Ray had three batters left Lourdes Gurriel Jr Su rez and Randal Grichuk Ray ensured his manager didn t have to make a move After getting Lourdes Gurriel Jr to fly out Ray froze Su rez with an up-and-in four-seam fastball to end the ballgame Now it s a little bit of a different pitch mix too Melvin announced You get a little deeper in your career you do things a little bit differently He s one of those guys that s just a great competitor and you feel his potency both in our dugout and I m sure on the other side too Added catcher Andrew Knizner He figured out several stuff in the bullpen he threw here a insufficient days ago I saw how several of his pitches were moving different and he was able to take all those shapes improved shapes into the competition in current times It definitely worked out well for him Ray was aided by an offense that had one its more well-rounded games in fresh months Rafael Devers drove in three runs his preponderance in a single meeting as a Giant Heliot Ramos totaled two hits and two RBIs Mike Yastrzemski compiled three hits Willy Adames did the same with an RBI Jung Hoo Lee contributed an RBI while Andrew Knizner had two hits and scored twice After losing two of three to the White Sox and dropping the first two games of this four-game set the Giants will enjoy a happy flight to West Sacramento for their three-game set against the Athletics at Sutter Vitality Field