Giants Open Athletics Series With Much-Needed Win

· Yahoo Sports

For the San Francisco Giants, Tuesday's matchup against the Athletics represented an opportunity to regain momentum after being swept by the Miami Marlins in their previous series.

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The Giants responded by taking the series opener with a 3-1 victory. Robbie Ray earned his sixth win of the season, while Caleb Kilian recorded his fifth save.

Coming off one of his better starts of the year against the Atlanta Braves last week, Ray continued that trend with another efficient outing.

The left-hander threw 102 pitches, 59 of them for strikes, across eight innings. He allowed just two hits and one run while issuing four walks and striking out six batters.

From a run-prevention standpoint, it was another strong performance. However, the walks remain a concern for the former Cy Young Award winner. Entering the game, Ray carried an 11.3% walk rate, according to FanGraphs.

While the free passes did not come back to hurt him in this outing, they continue to raise questions about his command.

With the Giants potentially looking to move expiring contracts at the MLB trade deadline, Ray appears to be one of the more logical trade candidates, and his control issues could impact his value if that situation develops.

The Giants' offense got to work in the second inning. Jung Hoo Lee opened the scoring with a solo home run, his fifth of the season. Later in the frame, Matt Chapman added an RBI single to extend the lead to 2-0.

The Athletics answered in the bottom of the third inning on an RBI single from Max Muncy. It was not a clean inning defensively for the Giants. Earlier in the frame, a fielding error by Lee allowed Lane Thomas to advance to second base, creating the scoring opportunity that Muncy capitalized on to cut the deficit to one run.

The Giants did not add another run until the seventh inning. Rafael Devers delivered an RBI single to push the lead to 3-1 heading into the eighth.

Despite the victory, the Giants left several scoring opportunities on the table. The offense finished just 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position, making runs difficult to come by throughout the night.

Still, the combination of Ray's strong outing and another successful appearance from Kilian was enough to secure the win. Kilian, who was named the Giants' closer a few weeks ago, recorded his fifth save as San Francisco claimed the series opener by a 3-1 final score.

The Giants will continue their three-game series against the Athletics on Wednesday. Tyler Mahle (1-7, 6.04 ERA) is scheduled to start for San Francisco, while the Athletics are expected to counter with Gage Jump (3-1, 2.37 ERA).

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