Giants' Robbie Ray, coaches think they've solved pitch-tipping issue
His last time out, Robbie Ray had an atrocious time of it. The Diamondbacks were all over the San Francisco Giants starter, no matter what he threw.
Ray speculated after that game, a 12-2 loss in Phoenix, that he was tipping his pitches; he got only four swings-and-misses among his 84 pitches - for comparison's sake, he'd had 28, total, over his previous two outings. His whiff rate this year stands at 54%; against Arizona it was 11% as he allowed 14 hard-hit balls and a career-worst nine earned runs in 4⅓ innings.
"It was really strange," Ray said Saturday at Oracle Park. "It was the least amount of swing-and-miss I've ever gotten in my career. Even on bad days where I don't have it or my stuff isn't as good, I'll still get double-digit swing-and-miss. It was kind of alarming.
"They were taking changeups that were two, three balls (length) off the plate and pulling them to left, so it was like, ‘OK, we have to clean this up.'"
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Ray and the pitching coaches delved into his delivery and, he said, he found some differences from his All-Star season in 2025. "There were a few things I noticed I've been doing, and honestly, I don't know how long I've been doing it," Ray said, speculating he'd fallen into some old patterns during spring training. "It made it a little easier to see what's coming."
Ray won't say what, exactly, he was doing and what he has changed except that it involves his glove position; no reason to give opponents instructions on how to crack the code if he ever starts tipping in a similar manner.
"We've cleared it up the last week," said Ray, who starts the series finale Sunday against the White Sox. "Arizona definitely had something - so that's honestly better than just getting hit around the yard without not knowing what's going on."
Six-man rotation? With Logan Webb coming off the injured list soon, possibly Wednesday, the question remains what the front office and coaching staff will do with Trevor McDonald.
McDonald was terrific in three starts filling in before allowing seven runs in the fourth inning Friday night, and the likelihood is that he returns to Triple-A Sacramento to stay stretched out in case the Giants have a need. But he could see time in the bullpen instead.
"The bottom line is the Giants have been really good when he pitches for us," manager Tony Vitello said of McDonald, whose first five big-league starts resulted in team wins. "And then I don't think anybody can brag more than Logan Webb that the Giants have been good when he pitches overall, if you're going to take the whole sample size. So it's good to have those two options. They're both similar in stuff, the way they compete - as long as they both pound the strike zone, they have success.
"So it presents a little bit of a puzzle, but with those two guys in particular, it's a good puzzle."
Could San Francisco consider a six-man rotation?
"It's been talked about," Vitello said. " I don't think we want to cheat ourselves or the players and not at least discuss any and all options, but eventually, whichever one we see is the greatest value will take over. … When it comes to a decision like that, it'll be worked through and we'll have confidence in whatever decision the whole group decides."
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