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PHOENIX – Robbie Ray looked at Bob Melvin. Bob Melvin looked at Robbie Ray. No words necessary. Simple eye contact is all that was required.
After the bottom of the eighth inning Thursday night at Chase Field, Ray walked into the Giants’ dugout hoping … anticipating … OK, knowing without a doubt that he was absolutely pitching one more inning.
And so it went. Ray required just 78 pitches to cruise through eight innings of two-hit, six-strikeout, no-walk ball, so Melvin wasn’t about to remove the lefty from this in-the-works masterpiece. But in this era of starting pitchers getting pulled prematurely, sometimes even with no-hit bids on the line, it’s never a given.
Ray went back out for the ninth and wound up pitching his first complete game since 2017 in the Giants’ 7-2 win over Arizona that evened the four-game series and created good vibes in advance of the team’s weekend series in West Sacramento against the A’s.
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“He came in after eight, he just looked at me, like, ‘I got this,’” Melvin said.
Ray said, “Bob and I kind of looked at each other and didn’t have to say anything. It was like, ‘OK, this is yours.’ He kind of showed the confidence in me to be able to do that.”
The ninth inning was Ray’s roughest. He needed 24 pitches for the final three outs. Ketel Marte hit a one-out homer, and Geraldo Perdomo drew a walk, the only one Ray issued. At that point, pitching coach J.P. Martinez walked to the mound with a simple message.
“He just said, ‘Hey, you should probably empty the tank right here,’” Ray said, “and that was kind of my cue to be like, ‘OK, this is everything I’ve got.’”
Ray retired Lourdes Gurriel Jr. on one pitch, a pop out, and needed six more to end the game, finishing the gem with a perfectly placed 95.2-mile per hour fastball on the inside corner that froze Eugenio Suarez, strikeout No. 7 for Ray on his 102nd and final pitch.
Through it all, despite the big lead, Melvin was getting nervous. He had Spencer Bivens and Erik Miller warming in the bullpen, and told himself that on-deck hitter Randal Grichuck would be Ray’s final batter. As it turned out, Grichuck never got to the plate.
“I’d have taken seven. Nine, you don’t see it very often these days,” said Melvin, elated to give his relievers a day off. “It’s nice to be able to reward him.”
The only Giants pitcher who seems a lock for the All-Star Game is ace Logan Webb, but Ray is a dandy 9-3 with a 2.68 ERA and deserves consideration if not a spot on the National League roster. He said an All-Star selection wasn’t on his mind Thursday night, but Melvin fully embraced the idea.
“He makes a great case for himself,” he said. “I would hope two guys on the same staff wouldn’t preclude being on the team together if they deserve it, and both deserve it.”
Limited offensively lately, the Giants were relieved to collect 12 hits including six by the first two batters, Mike Yastrzemski and Willy Adames. Rafael Devers and Heliot Ramos combined to drive in five runs, and nifty defense was provided by catcher Andrew Knizner and third baseman Brett Wisely, who played the position because three infielders including Matt Chapman are on the injured list.
Ray’s only other complete game came when he was a Diamondback pitching in Pittsburgh on May 30, 2017, a 115-pitch shutout in which he struck out 10 and walked none. Thursday marked his first appearance at Chase Field since 2020, his final Diamondbacks season.
Since then, he was a Blue Jay and Mariner, won a Cy Young Award and underwent Tommy John surgery. He was traded to the Giants before last season while still rehabbing and appeared in just seven games in 2024.
Now he’s part of one of baseball’s finest 1-2 punches and probably shouldn’t make family vacation plans for the All-Star break.