Giants rotation in precarious situation as Ray awaits MRI Originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Giants’ playoff hopes are like a sunset slowly disappearing behind the horizon, only not as picturesque or joyful.

San Francisco’s painful push into the playoffs suffered another blow when starting pitcher Robbie Ray was forced out of Sunday’s game against the Seattle Mariners with a strained left thigh.

This left the already heavily strained bullpen with many innings to cover, which they largely managed to do quite well in the 4-3 loss to the Mariners at T-Mobile Park.

However, the bullpen workload is secondary in the overall picture.

Ray is scheduled to undergo an MRI on Monday to determine the extent of his hamstring injury. The 32-year-old, who missed the first four months of the 2024 MLB season while rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, sounded optimistic after the game when speaking to reporters.

“I just felt it on a throw, I felt it tightening around me,” Ray told reporters in Seattle. “I took a step and I was like, ‘Ahh.’ I’ve tried to fight through injuries in the past and that hasn’t worked out well for me, so I’m hoping I caught it before anything major happened.”

“We don’t really know anything at this point. Just some tension. Hopefully avoiding a long-term hiatus is a good thing. For me, it felt very small, insignificant. I just didn’t want to overdo it and make it into something significant. I’ve never felt anything like that before. It kind of caught me off guard.”

Even a short rest would be a major blow to the Giants, who are already struggling with injuries and a constant rotation of pitchers into the starting lineup.

Manager Bob Melvin, who has been criticized by many fans for some of his pitching moves this season, almost sounded resigned to the idea that Ray will be out for a while.

“Hopefully he got it in a mild phase, but something like this doesn’t usually last a few days,” Melvin said. “It sucks for him, but you kind of have to find a way to deal with it. I’m just glad it’s not his arm again. We’ll figure it out as we go, but it’s certainly not ideal.”

If there’s a silver lining in this, it’s that the Giants are very good at juggling their pitchers. Melvin had to use 14 different starting pitchers in his first season with the Orange and Black, so he’s used to shuffling pieces of the puzzle when necessary.

“As the season progresses, we’re going to have some issues,” Melvin said. “So you try to add a little more depth to the rotation. So we’ll see what comes next. I really don’t know.”

The timing of the latest setback couldn’t be worse for the Giants or Ray, with San Francisco still clinging to its fading playoff aspirations while Ray is trying to salvage his first season in the Bay Area after missing so much time recovering from elbow surgery.

Ray had some control issues in the first few innings against the Mariners, but his fastball/slider combination was still effective enough in his short afternoon of work to record four strikeouts—three of them by swinging.

The former Cy Young Award winner said he felt like he was throwing well before his hamstring started to cramp.

“I felt like I was getting into the swing of things. Everything felt good in that inning,” Ray said. “It’s definitely frustrating, for sure.”

“It’s obviously tight. There’s no way around it. I think we noticed it before it became too significant.”

Monday’s MRI test can’t come soon enough for Ray and the Giants. A lot of people will probably be holding their breath until then.

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