Robbie Ray joins impressive SF Giants company with strong start to season

SF Giants starting pitcher Robbie Ray has been really good on the mound this season. In eight starts he has a 5-0 record and a 2.84 ERA. He has joined some very illustrious company with his start to the season.

According to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle, Ray is the first Giants pitcher to go 5-0 in their first eight starts since Tim Lincecum did it back in 2010.

SF Giants starter Robbie Ray has joined rare company with strong start to season

It is usually a pretty good thing when a pitcher is mentioned in the same breath as Tim Lincecum. The fact that Ray is off to this good start bodes well for the rest of this season which is his first full season with the Giants after he did not make his debut with the Giants in 2024 until the second half as he recovered from Tommy John surgery.

Ray looked great on Wednesday against the Chicago Cubs. The veteran pitched six innings and only allowed one earned run which was really not his fault and was more the product of Heliot Ramos misplaying a ball in left field due to the gusting Chicago winds.

It was fair to wonder what version of Ray the Giants would get going into 2025. He won the Cy Young Award in 2021 but he has dealt with a lot of injuries in the past and was inconsistent in his seven starts with the Giants last season.

Ray has exceeded basically all expectations so far thanks, at least in part, to a new pitch that he learned from Tarik Skubal. Adding that pitch to his arsenal in addition to his four-seam fastball, slider, and knuckle-curve has given an extra wrinkle for opposing hitters to deal with that has made Ray even harder to face.

Thus far, Ray has been the best starter in the rotation alongside staff ace Logan Webb. The rest of the rotation has shown flashes but has been far less consistent up to this point in the season.

Maybe if we get really lucky, Ray can follow in Lincecum's footsteps and earn his second career Cy Young Award this season. It is obviously way too early to be having that conversation, but Ray has been mighty impressive to start 2025 which bodes well for the rest of the year since the Giants will need their rotation to be a strength if they want to have continued success.