If Ray hits injured list, pressure mounts again on SF Giants’ rotation

Robbie Ray made his long-awaited season debut on July 24, finally giving the Giants the makings of a traditional five-man rotation. They’d no longer have to rely on bullpen games. Whether it was Ray or Logan Webb or Blake Snell or Kyle Harrison or Hayden Birdsong, San Francisco, in theory, had someone capable of providing length.

Roughly a month later, the Giants, again, find themselves looking for answers. Ray left his start on Sunday due to hamstring tightness. Snell and Webb are dominating, but Birdsong and Harrison are struggling. San Francisco, once again, sits at .500.

So, what now?

The severity of Ray’s injury is not yet known, but hamstring ailments are seldom easy to shake off and play through. Manager Bob Melvin acknowledged on Sunday that hamstring injuries “don’t take, typically, a couple days,” and there is a very realistic possibility that Ray misses some time. If that’s the case, the Giants will have to get creative when his turn in the rotation comes around.

San Francisco has a bit of time to sort things out. Webb, Harrison and Birdsong will start for the Giants in Milwaukee. Melvin has yet to announce his starters for the weekend series back at Oracle Park against the Marlins, but Snell will likely start on Friday. Ray’s next scheduled start, then, would be Saturday — a day before the rosters expand from 26 to 28 players.

At this juncture, a bullpen game seems like the likeliest route. It’s unlikely that Jordan Hicks would be available for a spot start either. Not only has Hicks converted back from starting to relieving, but he has already thrown a career-high in innings (108 1/3) with more than a month left in the season.

“I really have no idea at this point,” Melvin told reporters after Sunday’s loss of his plans to adjust the rotation without Ray. “We’re just trying to cover another game — five, six innings of another game. We’ll figure it out as we go.”

The uncertainty about Ray, who was scheduled for a Monday MRI, heaps more pressure on Webb to come through in Tuesday’s series opener in Milwaukee. The Giants need their ace to provide length and reduce the bullpen’s workload — if not give that unit the day off.

Even with the Monday off-day, San Francisco’s bullpen is taxed. This past weekend in Seattle, Birdsong, Snell and Ray threw just 10 combined innings. While Ray left due to injury, neither Birdsong (four walks, one hit batter) nor Snell (six walks) could consistently find the strike zone.

The bullpen was used early and often, throwing 16 1/3 innings against the Mariners. Sean Hjelle, Ryan Walker and the Rogers twins each appeared multiple times. Hjelle, Walker and Spencer Bivens all threw at least three innings.

Webb’s outing on Tuesday is all the more important given that neither Birdsong nor Harrison is guaranteed to pitch past the fifth inning. Harrison, whose workload has become a topic of discussion in recent weeks, has allowed 12 earned runs over 19 1/3 innings (5.59 ERA) over his last four starts. Birdsong has fared no better since the calendar flipped to August, surrendered 13 earned runs in 15 innings (7.80 ERA) while walking 11 batters this month.

In moving Alex Cobb at the trade deadline and converting Hicks back to the bullpen in July, the Giants signaled that they planned to ride Webb, Snell and Ray to the finish line.

If there’s a sliver of good news for the Giants, it’s that Webb, who leads all of baseball with 172 2/3 innings, is pitching his best ball of the season. Over his last five starts, Webb has allowed four earned runs over 37 1/3 innings. He tossed a shutout against the A’s on July 31 and could have gone out for the ninth inning against the White Sox in his last outing.

Saturday was a rare bad outing for Snell, who has struck out double-digit batters in four of his last six starts, including his Aug. 2 no-hitter in Cincinnati.

If Ray goes on the injured list, the importance of winning games started by Webb and Snell increases as the Giants entered Monday facing a five-game deficit to the Braves in the wild-card race.

COBB DEAL COMPLETED

The Giants and Guardians on Monday completed the trade that sent Alex Cobb to Cleveland at the end of last month. Infield prospect Nate Furman will join the Giants, the team announced Monday, revealing he was the deal’s player to be named later.

The July 30 deal also brought left-handed pitching prospect Jacob Bresnahan to San Francisco.

Furman, 23, is currently on the 60-day injured list after straining his shoulder in late June. The 2022 fourth-round pick hit only .125 in 13 games at Double-A this season, but that promotion came after he hit .338 with seven home runs at High-A.

Bresnahan has struggled since joining the Giants’ organization, going 0-3 with a 14.21 earned-run average over five outings with Single-A San Jose.

Meanwhile, Cobb pitched 10 1/3 innings over two starts for the Guardians before going on the injured list with a fractured fingernail.