The San Francisco Giants enjoyed a nice start to the season with a series victory over the Cincinnati Reds on the road in which they took two out of three.
After winning the first game in dramatic fashion and dropping the second game, a Sunday rubber match was set up between the two storied franchises which the Giants were able to win.
A massive part of the reason why San Francisco grabbed the victory was a solid start from their No. 3 man in the rotation, left-handed former American League Cy Young winner Robbie Ray.
In 5.1 innings, Ray gave up just three hits and three runs, striking out four and walking one en route to earning his first victory on the season.
Though the Giants were expected entering the offseason to be one of the team’s who would land at least one of the top names on the market in terms of free agency, when things fell through with Corbin Burnes they had to pivot and instead landed Justin Verlander on a one-year deal.
Obviously at 42 years old Verlander is far from what he once was, which put the pressure squarely on guys like Ray to step up and improve their own game in order for the pitching staff as a whole to take the next step.
Sunday was a solid beginning to the campaign for Ray, though he would be the first to tell you he still has work to do.
The fact that he’s the only lefty in the top-five of the rotation is notable as well as San Francisco gets versatility from Ray that they do not get elsewhere.
To this point, the 33-year-old has not lived up to the billing since the team acquired him via a trade with the Seattle Mariners and in turn took on his sizable contract which has the Giants set to pay him $25 million in each of the next two seasons.
Not pitching until late July last season and making just seven starts on the year, Ray posted a pedestrian 4.70 ERA, though his 43 strikeouts in 30.2 innings pitched — the highest K per 9 innings in his career — inspired confidence he could return strong this year.
If Ray can become the quality starter San Francisco believed they were getting when they took on the risk of his contract, it’s going to go a very long way towards raising the overall ceiling of the rotation.
Sunday afternoon while not bringing jaw-dropping numbers was a nice beginning towards making that happen.