Daniel Susac kept swinging a hot bat, Robbie Ray kept San Diego quiet, and the Giants walked out of Petco Park with a 4-1 win Thursday night.
San Francisco got exactly what it needed from Ray, who worked six efficient innings and allowed one run on four hits. He walked one and struck out six in a performance that came with his name circulating as one of the players the Giants might move for prospects before Monday’s trade deadline. Erik Miller finished the job in the ninth for his fourth save after three relievers bridged the gap.
The Padres’ five-game winning streak came to a halt, ending their longest run since an eight-game stretch in April. JP Sears took the loss after giving up three runs on seven hits and a walk in 3 2/3 innings, striking out two.
The Giants struck first in the opening inning. Heliot Ramos drew a one-out walk, Bryce Eldridge followed with a single, and Rafael Devers drove a deep fly to right-center for a sacrifice fly. Fernando Tatis Jr. kept it from being a much bigger moment, climbing the wall to steal what would have been a three-run homer.
Susac then added the kind of swing that has turned heads over the last two nights. In the second inning, the rookie catcher jumped on the first pitch he saw and sent a fastball an estimated 406 feet over the left-field wall, with Willy Adames aboard after a leadoff single. It was Susac’s third major league homer, and all three have come in the past two days after he went deep twice Wednesday in San Francisco’s 16-3 win over Milwaukee.
San Diego got its lone run in the second when Xander Bogaerts singled to right-center with two outs to bring in Ty France. Ray limited the damage before that by getting Luis Campusano to roll into a 6-4-3 double play.
Susac came through again in the fifth to push the Giants back in front by three. He lifted a sacrifice fly to center that scored Devers, who had bunted for a single, moved to second on a walk to Jung Hoo Lee and reached third on a wild pitch.
Devers finished with three hits for San Francisco, but the Giants left some runs out there. They went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11.
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Milwaukees pitching staff and catchers are usually built to control that part of the game, so the Giants keeping pressure on the bases was notable on its own. San Francisco has been efficient there all year, and the only real blemish in that series came when Heliot Ramos was thrown out, leaving a small but interesting question about how far this new edge can carry them. [Read more 🡒]
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The trade market around Heliot Ramos has started to get louder as the deadline approaches, and it is easy to see why the Giants would at least listen. Ramos has become the kind of middle-of-the-order bat that plays in any lineup, while Seattle has been looking for more offensive punch and has the kind of pitching depth that can make a deal possible without stripping the roster bare.
For San Francisco, the appeal is obvious: a controllable starter who could help steady the rotation beyond this season and give the club a clearer path forward on the mound. For the Mariners, the attraction is just as clear, since adding a bat like Ramos could change the look of their offense right away. Nothing is done yet, but the fact that these talks are even circulating says plenty about how both teams are weighing present needs against what comes next. [Read more 🡒]