Robbie Ray needs a lot of paint. I’ve compared him to Jackson Pollock before, his approach to pitching in my mind is similar to the artist’s large staticky abstractions that in the face of precision and artistry, achieve a certain effect almost by accident. Throw your materials at the canvas in long, wide, inexact strokes until something happens, some tenuous balance is achieved. Ray is the student who dumps the entire box of crayons on their desk to complete a coloring page. For a teacher, it’s a habit that is exasperating to watch, but an important reminder that kids have their own way of doing things. There’s often a logic buried somewhere under the scattered mess. Ray, for all of his career, has been this kind of pitcher: Big misses, reliant on swing-and-miss and chase. He’s not coloring within the lines — but he’s found peace with this style. It works for him and understands that one of the trade-offs of such expressionistic work is that he is not one for longevity. Lotta strikeouts, lotta walks require a lotta pitches thrown, which means you don’t often go deeeeep into games.
So Thursday’s outing for Ray was something of an anomaly. He pitched through the 7th inning for the sixth time this year and needed just 67 pitches to do it — 25, 30 pitches fewer than he typically needs. Gas was still in the tank. He took the mound in the 8th for the first time as a Giant and after a breezy frame that required 10 pitches, he was on the darkside of the 24th out. The last time he completed 8 innings in a start was August of 2021 as a member of the Blue Jays. Sitting at sub-80 pitches, with the Giants in the middle a long stretch of games and boasting a rare and robust 7-1 provided by the offense, there was no question Ray would go out for the 9th.
This was uncharted territory for the southpaw. It had been more than eight years since Ray found himself shoving in the final frame, a May 2017 outing as a member of the Diamondbacks rotation that resulted in the only complete game of his career.
Ray isn’t supposed to be in these types of situations. He’s the exact opposite pitcher of someone like Greg Maddux, yet he took the mound in the 9th with 21 pitches to bag three outs and achieve the signature complete game in less than 100 pitches, known as a “Maddux”. I imagined David Byrne’s voice kicking around in Ray’s head as he toed the mound, singing/shouting Well, how did I get here?
It’s a good question, because he delivered the most un-Ray performance of his season. He didn’t splatter or drip, or sling or bury. He do-si-doed between his fastball and slider for most of the game, but got a ton of value from his often estranged knuckle curve. He attacked the zone and benefitted from aggressive swings by Arizona’s hitters. He pitched to contact essentially. Balls in play produced a lot of quick outs and kept counts from going deep. He had gone to a 3-ball count in only three ABs thru 8 and walked none, nor were his strikeout totals exorbitant. Still he retired the first 12 hitters he faced. After Eugenio Suárez launched a homer to lead-off the 5th for Arizona’s first hit, Ray went right back in his groove and threw just six pitches to retire the next three batters. 13 was his highest pitch total in an inning. Stress was obviously minimal. Traffic light. The only base-runner for Arizona came on a one-out double by Lourdes Gurriel Jr. Only a handful of balls were truly hard-hit, and a lot of contact was directed into the ground, producing his highest ground-out total in a start this year.
Ray started to show his true colors in that final frame. Even with the low pitch count, I’m sure there was some exhaustion mixing with adrenaline that he had to manage. I’m sure he wanted that Maddux too. A nice feather in his cap…he missed it by three pitches. The 9th was definitely his roughest frame. He got Alek Thomas to quickly groundout to start the frame, but he fell behind 3-1 to All-Star Ketel Marte who then ripped an inside slider down the left field line for Arizona’s second run (Interestingly, even after insignificant homers in blow-out losses, Marte still stops half-way to third for a celebratory pull-up jumper as he rounds the bases). Ray then walked a pesky as ever Geraldo Perdomo for his first free base of the outing, but he didn’t let the back-to-back reaches unravel him. He got Gurriel to fly out on one pitch and put the cherry on top by freezing Suárez with a 95 MPH fastball to record the 27th out.
The list of things to be bummed at about a start like that is short — though with a competitor like Ray, I’m sure some things will irk him. He missed a Maddux by three pitches. That walk to Perdomo — 0 BBs would’ve looked so good on the stat sheet. The two homers allowed means he’s given up seven in his last six games (after giving up 0 in May), inflating his HR/9 rate over the one per 9 bubble. That rate is still lower than his career average, and his lowest season rate since 2015. More importantly, five of those seven homers were solo shots. And solo shots never ever ever never ever lose you a game…ever (*cough cough*).
Yeah, it’s nice when the offense comes through for a pitcher. Imagine the peace of mind Ray had on the mound with the early lead the Giants bats provided him. The sense of security and comfort, room to operate, like Kramer cruising in his extra-wide luxury lanes. Two runs again in the 1st, two more in the 3rd, three over the last three frames.
The top of the line-up shone in this one. Mike Yastrzemski and Willy Adames both collected three hits.
Heliot Ramos drove in two runs on two hits in the first three frames off Arizona starter Branden Pfaadt.
Both Jung Hoo Lee and Rafael Devers produced sacrifice flies. Devers broke the game open in the 7th with a 2-run single — the result of a battle with reliever John Curtiss in which he threw 8 straight four seam fastballs to San Francisco’s DH. Devers was overpowered by two, fouled off two, took three and then scorched one 105 MPH off his bat that skipped past the lunging Tim Tawa at first into right — a nearly identical hit to his RBI knock on Wednesday.
The crooked numbers, the adding on allowed Ray to pitch to contact. Homers similar to Suarez’s and Marte’s homers have sunk Ray in the past, but on Thursday, they had as much consequence as a fly on an elephant’s back. With proper run support, Ray just shooed them away and kept shoving.
The win redeemed what was looking to be an awful series against a division rival. The line-up came alive and put up 13 runs in two games. The 7-2 win was also the most complete, well-rounded game the San Francisco Giants have put together in a long time. They hadn’t had a blow-out win (5+ runs) since the Wilmer Flores game against the Athletics on May 16th. A month and a half of games that probably felt as long as the eight years between Ray’s two complete games.