LOS ANGELES — Robbie Ray sat back in a leather chair Wednesday and smiled as the music blasted through the Giants’ clubhouse. Hall and Oates gave way to AC/DC, and at times it was so loud that others in the room had to strain to hear conversations. Ray looked calm, at peace, like someone who didn’t expect a single butterfly to flutter through his stomach when he took the mound.
And then the game started.
In his first inning in 16 months, Ray hit two, walked two, threw two wild pitches and pushed a run across with his wildness. As the pitch count crept into the thirties, Sean Hjelle ripped his hoodie off and started to get loose in the visiting bullpen at Dodger Stadium.
The Giants had determined that Ray had 85 pitches in him in his return from Tommy John surgery, but manager Bob Melvin had no intention of letting the former Cy Young Award winner approach the halfway mark in just one inning. Ray was on the ropes, but he got out of the first with just one run on the board. The lefty sat in the dugout with catcher Curt Casali, and the pair took a moment 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, the offseason trade acquisition threw five no-hit innings and was backed by an opportunistic offense. The Giants won 8-3, making a winner of Ray, who retired 14 straight after a walk of Andy Pages with the bases loaded. The win was Ray’s first in the big leagues since Sept. 3, 2022.
“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “It’s 16 months since the last time I’ve been on the mound in a big league ballpark. It definitely was a long journey, but I’m definitely very thankful and excited to be back out there today.”
Ray said he was simply too amped up in the first inning. His stuff felt great in the bullpen, but once he took the mound in front of 54,000, he got a little quick with his front side, repeatedly spiking breaking balls in the dirt.
“You could have expected something like that,” Casali said. “Just over-trying. We’re grown men, but we still do stupid things every once in a while, too.”
Ray was one well-placed hit away from heading to the clubhouse in disappointment, but on this night the Dodgers wouldn’t get their first one until the seventh. He got out of the first and then struck out the side in the second, putting a bow on top with an elevated fastball that was blown past Shohei Ohtani. In the fifth, on his 86th pitch, Ray again blew a fastball past Ohtani, ending his night in style.
“When I talked to him he said, ‘I was emptying the tank,’ but it seems like he empties the tank on every pitch,” Melvin said, smiling.
Ray had a line of teammates waiting with hugs after that final pitch, and then he looked up into the seats and found his wife and two oldest kids, who had made the trip to see his return. He always waves to his kids after he’s done, and the Giants are hopeful that’s something they’ll see for the next two years and two months.
This was a day they have been waiting for since they shipped Mitch Haniger and Anthony DeSclafani to the Seattle Mariners in a deal that could go down as a heist. It couldn’t have gone much better, and it potentially swung the Giants’ momentum with just six days until the MLB trade deadline.
Executives don’t make major buy-sell decisions based on one game, or usually even one week, but the clubhouse desperately needed a win to show the front office that this is a group worthy of staying together.
In 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 both are throwing well, and Alex Cobb could return to the rotation as soon as Sunday. Staff ace Logan Webb will take the ball on Thursday in hopes of salvaging a series split against Clayton Kershaw.
The argument to sell is everything else the Giants have shown over the past week, and really over the past four months. There’s not really an argument to buy yet, not with the team still five games under .500, but Ray made a pretty compelling case for Team Don’t Sell, at least.
Nobody would want 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 it has been at any other point recently. And maybe, in a way, the Giants already have made their big move.
They always knew Ray would be back right before the trade deadline. He arrived looking like an ace.
“It’s great,” Casali said. “It’s like a trade acquisition.”
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