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What we learned when Canha’s win secured the Giants’ victory over the Tigers Originally appeared in NBC Bay Area Sports
SAN FRANCISCO – Returning home from a weeklong East Coast road trip Friday night, the Giants’ bats reflected a windy, fog-filled night and took six innings to wake up before Tyler Fitzgerald broke up a combined no-hitter to start the bottom of the seventh inning, sparking a late comeback that ended with Mark Canha’s sacrifice fly to the warning track for a wild 3-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers.
The win was Canha’s first game in the Bay Area for the Cal alum, and his first against his former team. Detroit traded Canha to San Francisco for minor league reliever Eric Silva on July 30.
For six innings, the Giants looked to disappoint their fans to start a seven-game homestand, but they clawed their way past the Tigers for an improbable victory.
Fitzgerald, Heliot Ramos, Canha and Brett Wisely accounted for the Giants’ four hits. Starting pitcher Robbie Ray allowed five hits and two earned runs in six innings, handing the ball to a bullpen that didn’t allow a run or a hit in the final three innings.
The Giants haven’t lost a series in two weeks and took a dramatic route to start a three-game series with Detroit the right way.
Here are three takeaways from the Giants’ comeback.
Double trouble for Ray
One pitch, one out. Ray’s night began with a flyout from leadoff hitter Andy Ibanez to catcher Curt Casali, and he needed just 15 more pitches to get out of a scoreless first inning. Ray ended up throwing 105 pitches in six innings, both season highs, but was undone by two doubles and poor defense.
Tigers third baseman Gio Urshela led off the top of the second inning with a double down the left-field line and then Ray walked the next batter, putting two runners on base and no one out. A wild pitch by Ray sent Urshela to third base and Ryan Vilade’s sacrifice fly drove in Urshela’s first run of the game.
Ray then got into a groove for two straight innings before another leadoff double hurt the lefty. This time, Javier Baez, who began the night hitting .179, lined a knuckle curve right up the middle for a double to left field. Baez then stole third base and scored on a throwing error by catcher Curt Casali. It was one of those nights for Ray, Casali and all of the Giants.
Where Ray continued to shine was in his accumulation of strikeouts at a historic rate. Ray walked seven batters to total 28 strikeouts on the season, giving him the third-most strikeouts by a Giants pitcher in his first four starts since 1958. Only Carlos Rodon (38) and Kevin Gausman (32) had more.
Abrupt welcome back
The news of the day was closer Camilo Doval is an option to Triple-A Sacramento one season after being named a National League All-Star and leading the league in saves. That wasn’t the only move the Giants made, however.
They also sent catcher Jackson Reetz to the batters’ list, recalled reliever Landen Roupp and reinstated catcher Curt Casali from the paternity list. While Roupp pitched two hitless innings, Casali’s return was not as smooth.
Casali, known for his defense and ability to calm the Giants’ pitching staff, made not one, not two, but three errors on the day. Two of them were on the pitch and one was a catcher’s interference. That can’t happen to a guy now hitting .190 with a .533 batting average after going 0-for-2 and striking out once in the loss.
New Closer in town?
A half-hour after officially releasing Doval, Giants manager Bob Melvin did not name a replacement to be the Giants’ new closer. Melvin said at the time that he had not spoken to a specific player about it but wanted an arm to get a foothold in the role. With the game tied 2-2 heading into the ninth inning, Melvin turned to submarine pitcher Tyler Rogers.
The veteran reliever has recorded just one save this season and two last year, but he converted 13 in 2021. Three up and three down: Rogers got the job done. It wasn’t a save opportunity, but Rogers did exactly what the game called for.
Will he be the new closer? What about Ryan Walker? Maybe Jordan Hicks? The answer will be known soon.
