Ray spins scoreless gem as Giants solve Sánchez

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants haven’t played their best baseball early this season, but they finally managed to put it all together on Tuesday night.

Robbie Ray struck out seven over 6 2/3 scoreless innings, and the Giants’ streaky offense rapped out 11 hits against Phillies ace Cristopher Sánchez, culminating in a 6-0 win that snapped San Francisco’s four-game skid at Oracle Park.

The Giants (4-8) entered Tuesday with an MLB-low .578 OPS, but they managed to solve Sánchez, who surrendered a season-high four runs over five-plus innings. The 11 hits were the second most Sánchez has allowed in a single start in his six-year career with the Phillies, trailing only the 12 he permitted in an outing against the D-backs on Aug. 11, 2024.

“His main arsenal is sinker, changeup, so everything is running away from you,” rookie catcher Daniel Susac said. “We were just trying to take it where he’s pitching it and take it the other way. Go with the pitch. Talking with our hitting coaches, it was look in, but take it the other way.”

Eight of the Giants’ knocks came with two strikes -- an impressive feat considering Sánchez had never given up more than five such hits in a game before.

"It seemed like they were getting easy hits off me,” Sánchez said. “I got them to two strikes, but I couldn’t put them away. I lost every at-bat with two strikes today.”

The top of San Francisco’s lineup set the tone for the productive night, with leadoff man Willy Adames, Matt Chapman and Luis Arraez combining to go 6-for-12 with three RBIs.

Adames led off the bottom of the first with a double, advanced to third on a single by Chapman and scored on an RBI groundout by Arraez to give the Giants an early 1-0 lead. San Francisco added two runs in the fifth behind RBI hits from Chapman and Arraez before stretching its lead to 4-0 on Jung Hoo Lee’s pinch-hit sacrifice fly in the sixth.

Susac also continued to provide a spark, singling in each of his first two plate appearances to become the first MLB player to start his career 5-for-5 since Ted Cox in 1977. Susac flied out in his third at-bat in the sixth, but he added a two-run triple in the eighth to collect his first career RBIs and stay a scorching 6-for-7 (.857) through his first three games for the Giants.

“It's always nice to know how you stack up against some of the best in the game,” Susac said. “Obviously, a guy like Sánchez has had a lot of success. He’s a really good pitcher. To be able to work some good at-bats off him was obviously a good confidence boost.”

Two-time Gold Glove Award winner Patrick Bailey figures to keep drawing the majority of the reps behind the plate for the Giants, but Susac certainly seems to be building an early case for more playing time, as well. One option would be to call up fellow catching prospect Jesus Rodriguez from Triple-A Sacramento, which would allow the Giants to give Susac some starts at the designated hitter spot.

“I think [Susac has] earned the right to be out there for us more often,” manager Tony Vitello said. “It's not an easy thing to go out there all the time. We'll worry about tomorrow when this whole deal in here is over with. You'll be seeing plenty of both guys as the season goes on.”

The Giants’ resurgent offense provided more than enough cushion for Ray, who held the Phillies to only three hits and three walks in his third start of the year. San Francisco is only 2-7 at home this year, but both of those wins have come with Ray on the mound.

“I felt like I was able to really just pitch,” Ray said. “I felt like the changeup was really good. Curveball was really good. Slider was good. The fastball was jumpy, so I think all around, I was able to mix it up and just not really fall into too many patterns.”

“I can’t speak for Robbie, but it kind of felt like he was going to do the job he always does, but with a little more determination in there to make sure things go well for his teammates tonight,” Vitello said.