Game Wrap 4/26/2025: Giants 3 Rangers 2

Robbie Ray had his strongest start of the year, and maybe in several years, and the Giants lineup played "small ball" to squeak out a win.  Key Lines:

Willy Adames SS- 1 for 4, 2 RBI.  BA= .205.  Christian Koss led off the Giants half of the 5'th inning with a line drive single to RF.  Sam Huff C followed with a drive to the wall in Triples Alley.  It looked like Christian Koss was going to score easily but he slipped and fell flat just past 3B and had to scramble back while Huff stayed at 2B with a double.  That put runners at 2B and 3B with no outs.  After Mike Yastrzemski RF popped out, Adames lined a single to CF to drive in both Koss and Huff.  All's well that ends well, as the saying goes.

Christian Koss 2B- 1 for 3, Sac, R.  BA= .200.  Ask and ye shall receive!  You want small ball?  Christian Koss says "I'll give you small ball!"  We already talked about his leadoff single to set up the Giants first two runs.  With the score tied at 2-2 in the bottom of the 9'th inning, Heliot Ramos LF led off with a single up the middle.  LMWJ walked to put runners on second and third with no outs.  Christian Koss stepped up to the plate and laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt that moved both runners up to 2'nd and 3'rd, now with one out.  With a RH pitcher on the mound, Bob Melvin sent Patrick Bailey up to pinch hit for Huff who had previously doubled.  Bruce Bochy, the King of Matchups, countered with a lefty pitcher.  But wait!  Melvin got the last laugh because Bailey is a switch-hitter who turned around and batting righthanded, poked one just over the first baseman driving in Ramos with with walk-off winning run.  As Vin Scully would say, "how about that?!"

Whether it's fighting off 0-2 counts to put the ball in play, pinch-running, making a great defensive play, laying down a perfect bunt or pitching an inning in a blow-out game, Christian Koss has done everything asked of him and helped his team almost every time he has had the opportunity to contribute.

Robbie Ray LHP- 7 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 8 K's, 6/4 GO/AO.  ERA= 3.73.  Ray was terrific with much better command of all of his pitches. He got stronger as the game went along, kept his pitch count down and completed 7 innings.  It looked like he as going to take another hard luck loss until Adames 2-run single in the 5'th.  The two runs he gave up were "soft" runs driven in by Sac Flies.  In his penultimate start last season, Ray gave up 1 run in 6.2 IP with 9 K's and no walks which is arguably a tad more dominant than today, but other than that, this was his best start since 2022.

Tyler Rogers RHP- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K.  ERA= 0.63.  It's easy to overlook Rogers in the Game Wraps as he puts in his obligatory scoreless 8'th inning but this was his league-leading 15'th appearance and he's only been scored on in one.

Ryan Walker RHP- 1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's.  ERA= 5.91.  This was a big test for Walker.  It wasn't a save situation but the game was definitely on the line.  He looked good in a non-save situation last night and said he worked out a mechanical issue.  This one started out with two singles to put runners on first and second with no out.  Kyle Higashioka tried to move the runners over but popped up the bunt and Sam Huff caught it.  That seemed to settle Walker down and he struck out the next two batters to get out of it.

Note that Higashioka failed to execute the exact same sac bunt in the exact same situation that Christian Koss executed in the bottom of the inning.  That was the difference in the game right there.

The Win improves the Giants record to 18-10 and puts them in first place in the NL West.  It also guarantees them a winning record in their marathon 17 games in 17 days including 10 on the road.

Jordan Hicks RHP tries for a series win tomorrow against Jack Leiter RHP in a battle of fireballing RHP's.