When the Giants traded away Alex Cobb and Farhan Zaidi declared their starting rotation the best in baseball, they were betting the five-man group as assembled could carry them the eight weeks from the trade deadline to the last day of the regular season and, they hoped, into October.
It was a risky wager, with a pair of rookies and another coming off major surgery, and the chances of it paying off took another blow when Robbie Ray winced and grabbed at his left hamstring on his 62nd pitch Sunday afternoon at T-Mobile Park.
Later diagnosed with hamstring tightness, Ray was removed from the game after a brief consultation on the mound with manager Bob Melvin and trainer Dave Groeschner. In a double-dose of unfortunate developments, the Giants dropped the rubber match of their series against the Seattle Mariners, 4-3, to send them back to .500 (66-66).
“Hopefully we caught it when it’s mild,” Melvin told reporters afterward. “But those things don’t typically take a couple days.”
The 32-year-old left-hander should undergo tests in the coming days to determine the injury’s severity and what kind of loss the Giants can expect in their rotation. Still, the immediate implications meant they couldn’t capitalize on a loss from the team they’re attempting to chase down in the National League wild-card standings.
Before his exit, on the first batter of the fourth inning, Ray had overcome more difficulties finding the strike zone to allow the Giants to build a 2-1 lead. He issued three walks and hit a batter but allowed only one run, after the first of four Mariners stolen bases put Dylan Moore in position to be singled home by Cal Raleigh in the first inning, cutting the Giants’ lead to 2-1.
Relieving Ray, Sean Hjelle allowed Seattle to flip the score, bringing home a leadoff single to even it at 2 in the fourth before getting two more out of a bases-loaded, no-out opportunity in the fifth to make it 4-2. He hit two batters and allowed four hits in 2⅔ innings of work.
The Giants got a pair of home runs from Heliot Ramos and Grant McCray. Still, they didn’t take an at-bat with a runner in scoring position until Mariners starter Bryan Woo, an Alameda High alum, left the game after seven two-run innings.
The second homer of McCray’s young career sailed inside the right-field foul pole to begin the seventh, cutting the deficit to 4-3, and Seattle reliever Collin Snyder issued a pair of walks to give the Giants two on with the potential tying run in scoring position.
However, first-base umpire Erich Bacchus said Ramos went around on a high fastball, and Michael Conforto grounded out to end the inning.
Ramos opened the scoring in the top of the first and gave the Giants a 2-0 lead with his second home run of the series and his 20th of the season, becoming the first Giants outfielder 25 years or younger to reach that mark since Chili Davis in 1981.
After Tyler Fitzgerald used his speed to force a poor throw from third baseman Josh Rojas to lead off the game, Ramos unloaded on a letter-high fastball from Woo for a majestic two-run shot over the visitors’ bullpen.
Barely two innings later, Hjelle was racing to warm up on the same real estate as Ray returned to the third-base dugout.
The Giants’ bullpen wasn’t in great shape entering Sunday after Blake Snell lasted only three innings in Saturday’s 4-3 win.
Closer Ryan Walker was unavailable after being used the previous two nights, and their ordinary long man, Spencer Bivens, had already been used in the same role behind Snell the previous night. Additionally, Jordan Hicks reported some discomfort in his arm while warming up Friday night and displayed diminished velocity during his inning Saturday.
Ray was making his first start against the Mariners since they traded him to San Francisco for Mitch Haniger and Anthony DeSclafani this past winter. In seven starts for the Giants since returning from Tommy John surgery, Ray has been dominant at times but erratic at others.
In his return to Seattle, Ray issued at least three walks for the fourth time this season while failing to make it out of the fifth inning for the third time. Two starts ago, he walked five and didn’t make it out of the first inning but followed that up with his longest start since surgery, limiting the White Sox to one run on three hits over 6⅔ innings while striking out nine without walking a batter.
Should he require a stint on the injured list, the Giants don’t possess anything close to the known quantity of Cobb — who made two starts in Cleveland and was placed on the IL — but have some options at Triple-A Sacramento, including Landen Roupp, Mason Black and Trevor McDonald, who are all already on the 40-man roster.
Since Ray debuted at Dodger Stadium on July 24, the Giants’ rotation had posted a 3.21 ERA — the lowest in the National League and the fourth-best in the majors — and the team had gone 18-11, the third-best record in the majors.
However, they are no closer to a playoff position, a month further behind, and now potentially without a key member of their heralded starting rotation. They were presented a rare opportunity to gain ground Sunday when Atlanta dropped its series finale to the Nationals. Still, they couldn’t capitalize and will fly to Milwaukee five games back of the final wild card with 30 left to play.
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