San Francisco Giant starter Robbie Ray kept the San Diego Padres in check picking up his eighth win against one loss at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Thu Jun 5, 2025 (AP News photo)

Thursday, June 5, 2025

Oracle Park

San Francisco, California

San Diego Padres 2 (35-26)

San Francisco Giants 3 (35-28)

Win: Robbie Ray (8-1)

Loss: Dylan Cease (1-5)

Save: Camilo Doval (8)

Time: 2:28

Attendance: 37,436

By Stephen Ruderman

The Giants pulled off another one, as Robbie Ray struck out nine over seven strong innings, and the Giants beat the Padres 3-2 to get a split in this four-game series on Thursday afternoon.

After their biggest win of the season Wednesday night, in which they came back from down 5-0, the Giants sought to get the split in the series finale on another nice day for baseball at Oracle Park. They had the perfect man on the mound in Robbie Ray, who despite not having the official ace title, has been the Giants’ most dominant starter this season.

Ray came into Thursday’s game 7-1. He took his first loss of the season last Saturday in Miami after his offense was unable to provide him any support in a 1-0 loss. With the Giants’ offense finally scoring more than four runs Wednesday night, there was hope that he would get more support today.

Ray started off the day nicely with a one, two, three inning in the top of the first. The Giants looked to pounce on Padres’ starter Dylan Cease, who has not had a particularly good season thus far. Cease came in 1-4 with a 4.66 ERA, and with the Giants’ offense carrying some of the momentum from last night, he was the perfect man to face.

The Giants had runners at second and third with one out after Jung Hoo Lee got screwed on a ground-rule double to Triples Alley. That bounce over the wall would come back to bite the Giants, who would waste a golden opportunity to make an early statement.

Ray got out of a jam in the top of the second, and he appeared to be headed for a quick and quiet inning after striking out the first two men he faced in the top of the third. However, Luis Arraez reached on an infield hit that deflected off Ray, and Manny Machado broke the ice with a home run to left-center field.

The Padres had a 2-0 lead, but the Giants were ready to respond in the bottom of the third, as they loaded the bases with one out. Willy Adames put the Giants on the board with a sacrifice fly to right-center field, and then one of the other newbies, Dominic Smith stepped up to the plate.

Smith fell behind in the count early, as he whiffed at the first two pitches. Smith took a pair of pitches to work the count to 2-2, and then he fouled off three-straight. Smith was looking to fit in quite nicely with a Giants’ team that has worked two-strike at-bats all year long.

Cease threw a perfect pitch on the outside corner, but Home Plate Umpire Will Little did not give him the call, and the count was now full. The next pitch, the ninth of the at-bat, was a slider that Smith drove into the gap in right-center for a ground-rule double that gave the Giants the lead.

Ray then responded with a six-pitch one, two, three inning in the top of the fourth, and he went on to retire 11-straight. At the end, Ray retired 13 of the final 14 men he faced to cap off a dominant seven-inning performance. On top of that, he walked just one, and he struck out nine. Ray now has 87 strikeouts through 13 starts this season.

Randy Rodriguez, fresh off converting his first big league save Wednesday night, took the ball for the eighth. Rodriguez gave up a leadoff single to Brandon Lockridge, but he was able to work his way through the inning.

Camilo Doval came in for the ninth and looked to bounce back after his blown save on Tuesday. It wouldn’t be easy, and just as they did Wednesday night, the Padres put runners at second and third with two outs. Doval then struck out Jake Cronenworth on a filthy low slider to end it, and the Giants won it 3-2.

Robbie Ray got the win to improve to 8-1, and Dylan Cease took his fifth loss. Most notably, Camilo Doval picked up his 100th-career save.

The Giants improve to 35-28.

The Atlanta Braves, who blew a 10-4 lead in a brutal loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks Thursday, will fly across the country for a three-game series at Oracle Park that will start Friday night. The Giants will look to take advantage of a Braves’ team that has been unable to click so far for whatever reason.

Hayden Birdsong (3-1, 2.37 ERA) will make his fourth start of the season in the series opener Friday. Birdsong has given up four earned runs, and has struck out 14 over 14 and two thirds innings in his first three starts.

Spencer Schwellenbach (4-4, 3.13 ERA)—a solid baseball name—will counter for Atlanta.

First pitch will be at 7:15 p.m.