SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants’ slim postseason hopes have been extinguished Tuesday evening, and inside hours of their elimination changing into official started to shift plans accordingly.
Robbie Ray, who was scheduled to start out Wednesday’s collection finale towards the Cardinals, was scratched shortly after the clubhouse doorways closed to reporters and changed with lengthy reliever J.T. Brubaker. Standing in entrance of his locker the next afternoon, Ray mirrored on the primary full season underneath his belt since present process Tommy John surgical procedure.
“Couldn’t really ask for a whole much more,” he mentioned.
After lacking nearly the whole thing of 2023, Ray returned final July and logged 30 innings and this season grew to become one of the vital sturdy and dependable starters within the majors. On the time of his closing begin, Ray ranked among the many league leaders in innings (182 1/3; twelfth) and pitches thrown (3,069; third) whereas ending with a 3.65 ERA, his greatest mark over the course of a season since he gained the Cy Younger Award in 2021.
“I felt really good about my season,” mentioned Ray, who was additionally named an All-Star for the second time in his profession. “… I’m proud to be able to take the ball when I was asked to, and log that many innings, give our team a chance to win that many times. Obviously it didn’t work out the way we wanted to, but this is a good workload to build off of.”
Though the season ended on a bitter observe, posting an 8.13 ERA over his closing six begins, Ray didn’t imagine fatigue was an element. Throughout the board, the speed on his pitches was larger in September than it was in August.
“Obviously I haven’t been in that situation in a while, so there was a little fatigue,” Ray mentioned. “But ultimately felt like I still had the capability of going out there and giving us a chance to win. I never felt bad, really at all this year. I felt pretty strong all the way through.”
“That’s who he is — he’s a bulldog,” supervisor Bob Melvin mentioned. “He gives everything on every pitch. You can hear him. He gets after it all the time, wants to be there for his team, wants to post and certainly did for us this year. But it makes some sense to give him this one off.”
The sharp enhance in workload this season made it a simple determination to place a wrap on Ray’s 12 months and switch their consideration to 2026.
With Justin Verlander set to be a free agent, Ray is one in every of solely three positive issues in subsequent 12 months’s rotation, together with Logan Webb and Landen Roupp. Hayden Birdsong, Carson Whisenhunt, Kai-Wei Teng, Trevor McDonald are a few of the names who will battle for the ultimate two spots, in the event that they aren’t crammed by free company or commerce this offseason.
“We’ve got some good young guys, me and Webby got a veteran presence. If we add someone in the offseason too, that’d be great,” Ray mentioned. “There’s gonna be some guys on the market who I think could potentially help us out.”
When Webb exited Tuesday’s recreation, he was in line for the win and it appeared Ray would nonetheless have a purpose to pitch on Wednesday. However the Giants’ bullpen wasn’t capable of maintain on to an 8-3 lead and misplaced, 9-8, which mixed with the Mets’ win put an excessive amount of daylight between the groups for the third and closing wild card spot with 4 video games left to play.
The loss locked in a fourth straight season with no successful report or a postseason look.
Webb mentioned this 12 months was “the most frustrating” whereas additionally calling the roster “the most talented team I’ve been on,” together with the one which gained 107 video games in 2021, the final Giants squad to make the playoffs.
“If there’s one thing about Buster Posey, I don’t think he’s OK with losing,” Webb mentioned. “I don’t think he’s OK with even being .500. He wants to win. I’m not going to play his job because it’s not my job, but I don’t think he’s OK with this. I don’t think there’s a lot of people OK with this in this clubhouse.”
Ray was requested if he may pinpoint the place issues went incorrect for a staff that was tied with the Dodgers for first place within the Nationwide League West after they made the largest splash of the season, including Rafael Devers in a mid-June blockbuster.
“It felt like there was multiple times right before the trade deadline where we kind of shot ourselves in the foot,” he mentioned.
For the reason that Devers commerce, the Giants have gone 36-52 and went from patrons to sellers by the commerce deadline. On Tuesday, the slide reached its pure conclusion, with their season ending in disappointment for the fourth straight 12 months.
“Not to say that we didn’t get some good pieces for the future, but we got rid of a couple key pieces in this clubhouse,” Ray mentioned. “After that we kind of went on a surge and felt like we were getting some momentum. Then, the last couple weeks we just weren’t able to really do anything. It’s unfortunate, but it’s a good lesson for us to learn.”
Notable
— RHP Randy Rodríguez underwent profitable surgical procedure to restore the ulnar collateral ligament in proper elbow — the operation generally generally known as Tommy John — and was given a 12-14 month timeline for restoration. Dr. Keith Meister carried out the process.
— RHP Logan Webb will begin the Giants’ season finale on Sunday, giving him an opportunity to turn out to be the primary Giants pitcher since Invoice Voiselle in 1944 to guide the league in strikeouts and innings pitched. Webb (201⅔) has logged 5 extra innings than the next-closest pitcher within the Nationwide League, Christopher Sánchez, and is tied with Paul Skenes at 216 strikeouts.
— McDonald and Verlander will get the nod within the Giants’ different two remaining video games.
Initially Revealed: September 24, 2025 at 6:20 PM PDT
