Giants’ Robbie Ray keen to increase scorching streak vs. Rockies

One of the hottest pitchers who won’t be appearing in the upcoming All-Star Game will take the mound when Robbie Ray and the San Francisco Giants host the Colorado Rockies on Friday night.

Propelled by their first “Splash Hit” of the season, the Giants opened the four-game head-to-head with an 8-2 victory on Thursday night. The Rockies won the first meeting in two previous three-game sets against their National League West rival, eventually taking both series 2-1.

Ray (8-6, 3.45 ERA) started both Giants wins in Colorado, a 19-6 triumph on May 31 and a 6-4 victory last Saturday. The left-hander limited the Rockies to four earned runs in 10 innings in those outings.

After a 3-6 start and 4.28 ERA in his first 10 starts this season, then back-to-back no-decisions in which his ERA rose to 4.45, Ray has gone 5-0 with a 1.85 ERA in his last six starts.

The 34-year-old has compiled a 7-6 record and 5.10 ERA in 24 career starts against the Rockies.

The Giants celebrated not only a win Thursday night, but also rookie Bryce Eldridge’s first home run into the San Francisco Bay. It was the first to splash into McCovey Cove on a fly by a Giant since Rafael Devers last September.

Willy Adames, who also homered in the win, told Giants fans to get used to it.

“I mean, he’s 7 feet tall,” the veteran said of his 6-foot-7 teammate in a television interview immediately following the game. “He’s got a lot of power. It’s impressive because he’s so young, but he’s so big, so strong.

“I’m not really impressed because he’s that good. It’s amazing. He’s going to do great things for this organization.”

The task of keeping the ball dry for the Rockies on Friday night will fall upon right-hander Tanner Gordon (0-2, 6.95), who has faced the Giants in two of his last three starts. He was roughed up to the tune of nine runs and 12 hits in eight innings.

Eldridge doubled off Gordon the first two times they met this season. The converted reliever finally got the slugger out via a strikeout in their third head-to-head, before walking him in their most recent meeting.

The 28-year-old has never beaten the Giants in three lifetime starts, going 0-2 with an 8.36 ERA.

After praising the powerful left-handed hitters in the middle of the Rockies lineup last week, it’s perhaps no coincidence that Giants manager Tony Vitello has scheduled left-handed starting pitchers for the first two games of the series. Carson Whisenhunt, called up from Triple-A to take the ball in Thursday’s opener, limited the Rockies to three hits in 5 2/3 innings.

One thing seeing a left-hander did was turn switch-hitting Willi Castro over to the right side, where he entered the series hitting .300, as opposed to .246 as a lefty swinger.

Castro delivered both of Colorado’s runs in the series opener with his seventh home run of the season.

“It’s hard to put into words how helpful he’s been to this team,” Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer said before Thursday’s game. “Just the ability to in-game make matchup moves to better our chances to win because you can put him somewhere else in the field defensively, and himself just being the switch hitter. What he actually does defensively and offensively, it’s been incredible.”

Castro has gone 1-for-6 in his head-to-heads with Ray this season.

–Field Level Media