I’m running out of Robbie Ray name puns
3 runs are more than zero — but it still ain’t a lot. That much became nerve-wrackingly clear with Ryan Walker on the mound in the 9th, when two doubles halved the Giants 3-1 lead and the Nationals came within a hit from tying it up, and homer from stealing the game and the series.
Though Walker danced on the edge of oblivion (Nathaniel Lowe came within a foot of slapping a game-tying double), he got the job done, striking out Lowe with one-out and the tying run on second before Alex Call flew out to right.
The San Francisco Giants aren’t scoring runs…and yet they’re winning more than losing. It’s no secret why. It’s the pitching, bruv. They’ve got the best bullpen in baseball, and one of the better rotations. After losing the first Robbie Ray start of the year against Kansas City last week, the Giants offered up their best apology by not letting another gem go to waste.
May they never do it again.
Sunday’s outing was Ray’s seventh quality start in 11 games, and sixth in a row. He’s now 7-0 with a 2.56 ERA and the Giants are 10 and 1 in his starts. The veteran lefty breezed through 6 innings, allowing just 1 R on 3 hits while striking out 7, the fastball responsible for six of them. It was also Ray’s first game without a walk all season.
The Nationals scratched their only run across in the 3rd after Nasim Nuñez scampered around the bases after a lead-off single with two stolen bases and a wild pitch. Hits against Ray have been few and far between for opponents. Coming into this start, he’s allowing less than 7 hits per 9 innings and held lineups to 3 hits or less in six games now after Sunday’s stingy performance.
Washington went knock-less in just 4 at-bats with runners in scoring position against Ray. Three of them came in the 2nd after a lead-off double from Lowe. An opportunity that quickly fell flat when Ray promptly induced two grounds out and a K.
The Nationals’ next at-bat with a runner in scoring position didn’t come until two-outs in the 6th when Amed Rosario doubled and big man James Wood lumbered up to the plate. For those astute observers, the situation called to mind Saturday’s first inning when Wood followed a Rosario double by with a decisive line-drive homer to right.
Another one of those would’ve meant a whole new ballgame, and the home run haunt has always been a very-real possibility for opposing hitters when facing Ray. The hits come few-and-far between, but free bases followed up by long balls have frequently been used to unravel otherwise solid pitching performances throughout his career.
But that’s been the not-so subtle key to Ray’s success in 2025. He’s still striking out a lot of batters (a little less than usual though), walking the same amount, still getting hit hard — he’s just not giving up homers. His 0.8 HR/9 and 7.9% HR/FB going into game has been his lowest rate since 2015 and are half of what they were in his last full season in 2022 and his Cy Young season in 2021.
Ray has said no more to downer dingers, and he did it again against the Nationals on Sunday.
It was a down-and-in slurve that Wood used to torpedo Harrison’s start yesterday, so Ray, as he did all game, used his hard breaking ball sparingly (21% usage). Four fastballs split the count before he slung the slider, dotted down and away, which Wood fouled off. A great pitch spoiled, but the location and type set-up Ray’s next offering: a 95 MPH, chin-high fastball that Wood couldn’t help but chase.
The strikeout was Ray’s last act on the mound. He’s now gone six starts and more than 40 innings pitched without allowing a baseball to leave the yard.
Speaking of baseballs leaving the yard. The Giants did that! More specifically, Sam Huff did that, and it was about time. Not specifically for Huff (though it’s been a month since he launched his first in Anaheim), but as a team. San Francisco hadn’t had an extra base-hit all series. A drought that had dogged on for twenty innings before Huff said no longer and skipped a Mike Soroka fastball off the top of the wall in right. Mike Yastrzemski followed up the solo shot with a triple, later scoring on Heliot Ramos ground out.
The game plan against Soroka was to attack early due to his extremely low walk rate. It worked in the sense that opportunities were created and runs were scored. It wasn’t a lot, as we discussed earlier, but it was plural!
After plating just one run and managing only 2 at-bats with runners in scoring position against the previous two Washington starters, the Giants scored three times with five at-bats with RISP against Soroka, all within the first three frames! In these lean times, this qualifies as a veritable eruption of offense. Did they get a hit with a runner in scoring position? No! Did they bring in a run on a lucky check-swing roller that traveled maybe sixty feet up the first baseline? Heck yes! Did they manage just one hit over the last six frames? Of course! Is that all fine! Today it was!
Now on to Detroit.